A graphic novel that explores the months-long encounter between London psychotherapist Pat and her client/patient/co-lead James, a successful barrister with an unhealthy compulsive addiction, Couch Fiction does a superb job of illustrating what exactly happens in a modern psychotherapy session. I wonder how much research has been done on the impact of recycling bins and their contents on the doorsteps of therapists’ premises? I would be especially interested to know of their impact on the first-time client.

Perry, Philippa. "Ask Philippa: meet the Observer's brilliant new agony aunt" . Retrieved 20 June 2021. Though outwardly unusual, the two of them live an ordinary, rather cosy kind of a life. She describes it to me. Philippa spends her day with her patients and then flops down in front of Countdown; Grayson spends his day in his studio listening to Radio 4 and then comes hoping to chat, only to find she is all talked out. At weekends, they go to their cottage, where they grow vegetables. Their daughter, Flo, is 17 and is hoping to read chemistry at Durham University and they are preparing themselves for empty nest syndrome. Together, they are growing older. A few weeks ago, Grayson celebrated his 50th birthday with a big party, at which he treated guests to some advice he received from an elderly gentleman whom he met when he gave the annual William Morris lecture. After 50, he told the assembled company, "a man should never pass a lavatory, never trust a fart and never waste an erection". You can't win with psychotherapists. But wait – who said there was anything to "win"? is that how I look at life? As an eternal struggle of winning and losing?

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Perry is a monthly agony aunt for Red magazine [10] and, since June 2021, for The Observer. [16] She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in November 2019. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "A swarm of fruit flies". [17] Politics [ edit ] Publications [ edit ] Books [ edit ] The relationship here is not between therapist and client – but with the workplace. This is a brilliant application of psychoanalytic concepts, especially the theories of Wilfred Bion, to the world of work. Written in a practical and accessible way, it offers valuable insights into leadership, “primary task”, team dynamics and the system of the workplace, inviting readers to find new ways of understanding organisational stress and the dysfunctional ways we can behave in the office.

I worry that I don’t have the right things to say and that girlfriends will either be bored by or put off by what I share, so I share as little as possible (not always, but it is my natural inclination). I also shy away from conflict. I’m not good at expressing myself and I think if I speak, I’ll only make things worse. I expect Observer readers are familiar with the concept of “The Comfort Zone”. There are some things we feel confident about, some we are hesitant about trying. Far outside our comfort zones are goals we might find attractive but don’t dare to approach. Maybe 2022 is when we dare? Not all in one leap, but in increments by doing the thing we are merely hesitant about as a stepping stone. When you do something in one area, say, learning to ride a bicycle competently, the surprising thing is that it invariably improves overall confidence in other areas, too.Perry was determined not to make her therapist an all-seeing, God-like figure. Sometimes, Pat finds her client difficult, even dislikable and sometimes, in their conversations, she seems merely to be feeling her way. "Therapy isn't about the therapist knowing more," she says. "It's more about the therapist being used to evacuations – no! that's the wrong word! – I mean excavations of the mind." In response to our earliest environment, we develop coping strategies and these become ingrained habits. What may have got you through early on – may have even earned you the appellation of “good boy!” – might have been “sharing as little as possible”. But what might have been a self-preserving policy in the past can become a self-defeating policy in the present. You say not sharing is your “natural inclination”. It could be just early adaptation, therefore ingrained rather than natural.