The distress of our times

Unsettled times; unsettled people.

That is the order of things in these days. It has been labelled ‘the age of anxiety’.

From war and rumours of war; from disturbance in our weather to pandemics; to political earthquakes to anger against what seems a rigged system, there is much to disquiet us, much to create turbulence. Trace anger to its source and what people rail against is lack of hope.

For many, how to navigate life when they are struggling is a constant challenge. The antidote to despair has always been hope. Hope’s secular version is perennially powerful. It is the currency of leaders; the dynamo of those who dare to imagine new worlds and better futures. There is also a strong Christian version where we dare to pin our hopes on Christ who redeems and who saves in every possible way. This is the currency of the Christian church and those who serve.

In my own small way, I am responding to the turbulence of our times by offering therapy.

You have it on you to reach a bold new future! As in a recent book I have written about counsellor and therapy training, you are a valuable person with incredible worth. (“Finding the Valuable Person” (Pickwick). Let’s work together at the things that are holding you back or patterns of reacting that are detrimental to you. I work as per our training course in an integrative way with a psychodynamic core. That means we will look together at current emotional difficulties but also go deeper into wounded history. I offer therapy from my outside room in Charminster, Bournemouth. ACC membership 14228. BACP membership 085479. You can send me an email on chrissteed2012.cs@gmail.com if you would welcome a talk.

A follow-on book is called “The Observer and the Observed”. It probes how far the quest for meaning, for value, significance and love is embedded in the cosmos. The limits to scientific explanation are such that naturalistic philosophy is unable to address these factors so crucial to our lives. A neutral universe where nature by itself performs our existence cannot respond to the mystery of our personhood any more than an AI entity can offer counselling to the distressed

These are profound questions about our existence we must all wrestle with.

Chris