Well, that didn’t last long.

Turns out that, in Brayne language, retirement has all kinds of meanings.

Three months ago, it seemed absolutely the right thing to do – to seriously downsize my EMDR psychotherapeutic commitments and turn the family focus to grandchildren, cycling, learning languages and generally, at 75, to ageing gracefully.

Middle-length story short, this is to let you know that while I will from Easter still be taking a good long sabbatical-style break, “dropping in on Dracula” as it were as Jutta and I tandem around Transylvania (that link will be our blogging spot), from the summer I’m going to revert at least for the time being to what I have always best enjoyed

Which is, yes – don’t sound so surprised – working with EMDR and (OK, control freak to the last) managing things myself.

Having just led a seriously rewarding Unleash Part 2 this past week, with intergenerational, parts and dreams, I’m reminded just how thrilling and fun attachment-informed EMDR can be when approached with a transpersonal dimension.

So, I guess I ain’t done quite yet.

Where Now?

On the one hand, I’m sticking with the intention of winding significantly back on individual work with clients and consultees/supervisees.

On the other, as well as keeping going with my core Unleash Your EMDR workshops Parts 1 and 2 (two each of which are already in the calendar from later this year), from September I’ll be continuing with monthly live ai-EMDR Session workshops, alternating second Wednesdays at UK/Australia-friendly times and Thursdays for the UK/Americas.

Taking the place of smaller ai-EMDR supervision groups I’ve so enjoyed running for several years now, I’m also going to experiment with monthly Open Consultation Spaces for Q&A and discussion around best practice ai-EMDR – again, bookings open on our shiny new EMDR Focus website.

I might also with time put together explorations of various aspects of ai-EMDR – dreams, intergenerational, parts, couples, targeting, interweaves etc – to be enjoyed (if that’s the word) in recorded form online.

EMDRIA are happy to confirm CE points for these if they’re solid and professional enough, and I’m pleased in that regard to have done a first experimental webinar on interweaves which some of you attended live.

And what of EMDR Focus?

Back to the family, daughter Katharine isn’t, just yet anyway, taking over the EMDR Focus operation with its workshops, webinars and supervision groups.

As a seriously competent and inspirational EMDR therapist in her own right, she will stay very much associated with the work, facilitating and available for colleagues and clients looking for attachment-informed support, but focusing her energies on her psychotherapy Masters and on building her own practice.

Having had so many lovely messages of gratitude and good cheer from colleagues assuming (as I did at the time) that I meant what I said about retirement, I have to admit to certain amount of awkwardness in sharing that that’s not quite what’s happening.

That said, there’s been a very personal reward in the months since I announced I was hanging up my buzzers, in how it’s brought home how good it can be, as it were, to get one’s funerals in early.

I trialled that with a party for my now late mother’s 90th birthday in 2017, with one member of our extended family present for every year of her life.

When the time came four years later to say the inevitable final goodbye, it wasn’t just Covid that meant her formal farewell could be very much more modest.

So, with warm thanks for all the kind words which so many of you have shared back to me about the journey we’ve been on this past decade and more, and what we’ve learned together and continue to learn, I’m aware that next time I say I’m done, you might not take me quite so seriously.

I won’t take the absence of accolades personally…