Thinking Sessions
Dear Client, as you think about what you are passionate about, how you can match up your work with your passions, where your life has brought you, why you are frustrated, what is blocking your creativity, why you cannot get down to what you want to get down to, why your dream of life, from your youth, has not worked out as you’d hoped and any of the many other personal and/or professional concerns you may have, for which a person may reach out for assistance, I will be present and attentive, as we follow where your thinking goes.
In the thick of life, in its busyness and complexity, at times of transition, or in daily concerns, I offer a space (the Thinking Environment, as developed by Nancy Kline)(See more https://www.timetothink.com/), without evaluation or analysis, to enable clients to find safety, within which to explore whatever needs attention. You, the client, are held supported and encouraged, through my creation of such an environment, an open space within which the flow of communication can be established, to generate your own thinking.
Knowing that quality of thinking directly correlates to quality of life, I undertake to give you my interest and attention, without interrupting, in order to facilitate the generation of your thinking, so that you may find your own way. I trust that this time and safety engenders your own exploration, so that what is there can make itself seen and that you may have your own aha! moments. Once what is there is seen and has the opportunity to be named and integrated, the client’s life is their own.
“We do and feel and build and destroy and conceive practically everything in our lives on the basis of assumptions” Nancy Kline
Each client is recognized for the entire world they represent and is valued and appreciated for their unique offering. My client is seen as and encouraged to become their own expert, to undertake their own journey of discovery, to do their own private investigation. This valuing of each client as the unique individual they are, builds a new culture, a new community, based on the strength each individual gains from being given attention. The emphasis placed, in a Thinking Session, on the crucial importance of the client’s ability to think independently and the trust in and respect for this, directly opposes the current prevailing emphasis on the expert being the “one-in-the-know”. The Thinking Session and the insights it may bring, generously affirm all that is within the human mind, heart and life.
“I want there to be a place in the world where people can engage in one another’s differences in a way that is redemptive, full of hope and possibility. Not this, “In order to love you, I must make you something else.” That’s what domination is all about…” bell hooks, ‘Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies’.
In the framework of the Thinking Environment and Thinking Session, the client enters a space where they are held and facilitated, to explore their innate ability to think independently and to experience their life positively impacted by this, as they claim the creative power of sovereignty.
“There is a sense in which [thinking] for extended periods of time could disturb one’s claim to citizenry, to productivity, to being proper, to being a proper self, and yet it feels like the world and the events at large are inviting us into a space of [thinking] and it feels our bodies want to do it, especially in a time when it feels politics isn’t serving, isn’t touching our yearning, isn’t helping us meet each other in the ecstasy of encounter” Báyò Ákòmoláfé
“Listening, in the busyness of life, remains one of the most loving, giving, flattering and indeed, seductive things, that anybody can give…” Juliet Nicholson, granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West, talking about her grandmother.
I invite you…
Thinking Sessions & German New Medicine
German New Medicine (GNM) is a way of thinking about biology and health that sees symptoms as part of survival programs that our biology runs, in response to the way in which we react to what happens to us. These are reactions to things that happen to us, in our lives that come as a shock, which we don’t have the resources in that moment to resolve and in which we find ourselves feeling alone. Within the GNM way of thought, symptoms track back to and reveal the original moment of shock. As this can sometimes be in the distant past, there may be a lot of associations related to and clustered around the symptoms, which it can be helpful to unpack and unravel, within the safe confines of the Thinking Session (see above).
It is said that life is like the undoable Gordian Knot, which, in 300BC in Greece, was placed in the village square of Gordius, with a sign saying that whoever could undo it, would be ruler of all Greece. Alexander rode into town, saw the sign, whipped out his sword and chopped the knot in two, thereby undoing it. He became ruler of Greece and, since then, the predominant way of resolving complex human affairs, has been with the sword. The Thinking Session, related to GNM, is an opportunity to expose the knot of your own symptoms to the light of day, so that, in the airing, they can begin to unravel and heal, in a new way, without applying the sword.
You will have the benefit of the above-mentioned environment (‘Thinking Sessions’), within which to be held and facilitated to do your own sovereign exploration and enquiry into your health. Given the chance to patiently contend with your symptoms and learn your intelligent design, will help you come to a place of increased clarity and resolution.
“Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie” Jean Cocteau
I invite you…
Soul Journey Work
These sessions are customized for each client. Using a combination of meditation, conversation, movement, art, time in nature and Thinking Sessions, I am here to create safety, to facilitate and hold you, as you journey into discovery and wholeness. Maslow, in a paper in 1943, defined self-actualization as “the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of being.” This is an offering of open and safe space for exploration. In a world where time equals money, where productivity equals worth, leading to depletion and exhaustion, taking time out for yourself, and, through space and slowness, finding nourishment, you will discover your own rhythms and sink into internal fulfillment. You will remember what it feels like to connect to yourself, to other and to the transcendent. Find a way to resource yourself. I provide and offer space for this.
I invite you…
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And to know the place for the first time“
– T S Eliot
“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Georgia O’Keeffe
“Safety is not the absence of threat, it’s the presence of connection.” Gabor Maté
Sādhanā Retreats
Sādhanā, in Sanskrit, means spiritual practice – practices which lead to regulation. In order to be able to practice, whether it is movement, meditation, journaling, or anything else, we must have time and we must have space. The sanctuary of my home provides this: time and space for you to slow down, for your replenishment. You have time to enjoy the wild beauty of the beach, a minute’s walk away, on the Atlantic coast of the southern peninsula of Cape Town. Then come back to the tranquility of my forest garden.
For either day, or stay-over retreats, you have the use of an en suite bedroom. You may want to rest, stretch, rebound, do a guided conscious dance session, meditate, journal or read. I can make you a meal. We can converse. You may want a Thinking Session, or to use any of the above practices. You will be held in comfort and safety.
Supported within tranquility, with time, you will be able to unfurl…If you would like some time out from the system where every moment is bought and sold, if you would like solitude, I make myself and my home available for this. Just like the place in which my home is situated – an inlet, which gives sea birds refuge from the wild Atlantic – you will find rest and the opportunity to replenish yourself.
I invite you…
“To become deeply silent is not to become still, but to become tidal and seasonal, a coming and going that has its own inimitable, essential character.” David Whyte
“I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home.” Mahmoud Darwish, excerpt from ‘I Belong There’
About Me
The experience of my life gave birth to the question in and for me, “WHAT is going on?” Left to handle, on my own, by the age of five, three encounters with death, culminating in my father’s death, my life has been dedicated to integrating and to learning from what these encounters brought me. This has involved a massive journey to the interior of myself, as well as looking at what is going on, on the outside. Much of what I have been learning has been the skill of grief. And, as articulately said by Báyò Akómoláfé, “There is a strange kind of hospitality that comes in grief. There is a beauty, there is a welcome in lamentation.”
When my father died, I lost not only him and my family, as it had existed up until then, but also, as it came to be, my home and country of birth. We moved back to my mother’s family, on a different continent and continued the generational refugee story, began (at least in my memory) from the time of my great-grandparents. When so many, in this time, in this war-torn world, are and have been displaced, the theme of home is central. So much has been lost, so much taken away. I make my home (ultimately in myself) available to you, to explore and to find home, in yourself. Having trod my path, I welcome you into the safety of the environment that I create and offer ways to help you find your way back in, to replenishment, resourcefulness and fulfillment, to honouring your unique and significant flow.
My path has taken me through much study – formal, as well as private investigation. Through the question born in me, this study, digging and delving, to find out what is going on, has been my devotion. I hold qualifications as a high school teacher, teacher of the Alexander Technique and as a coach of thinking, under Nancy Kline. I have also pursued embodiment, through various practices – NIA, Biodanza, Authentic Movement, Conscious Dance and the above-mentioned Alexander Technique. I am mother, poet, seeker, seer, friend, lover of nature and creativity, always exploring and finding – making my journey from pupa to butterfly…
I invite you…
“Attention is the beginning of devotion”
– Mary Oliver
Testimonials
Time To Think is like releasing a long breath out that you didn’t realize you were holding. It’s a precious gift to yourself. The minute I entered the space that Karen creates for her sessions, I felt a deep sense of peace and being held and supported. There was a huge release for me in being able to speak (or not speak and just be) and follow my own train of thoughts to their natural conclusions, being truly heard and accepted in a non-judgmental space. It’s truly a gift to oneself and I will definitely be giving myself the time to think with Karen on a regular basis.
Adele – Thinking Session
I absolutely loved my Time To Think sessions with Karen. She brings a very calm and witnessing energy as she facilitates the thinking process. I found it incredibly insightful being able to go through the process of thinking on my own and come to a solution channeled from the person who knows me best…myself! Will definitely be returning for more!
Jenna – Thinking Session
It made me realize a few things I hadn’t realized before…The thinking session took me through the process of what’s wrong, where it started, why it’s triggering now and how I can approach it when I’m triggered next time, so it doesn’t escalate. In that sense, it helped so much, giving me information to take me forward. The biggest thing I’ve taken from it is to appreciate my sinuses for not being my enemy, but being there always to protect me.
Melani – German New Medicine
Having attended many groups in Karen’s home for the past year, I can say you’re in for a treat. Karen creates a nurturing, warm space that’s restful yet enquiring, safe, yet open to what is possible…I have come away from each group feeling nourished, intellectually stimulated, braver. Encouraged to follow my own path.
Nina – German New Medicine