Existential Development for those who want to live life more fully
Welcome!
I’m Clare, and amongst other things I’m a philosopher, a storyteller, an ecopsychologist, a facilitator of complex conversations and of movements of shape-shifting through the lifeworld.
I work with people who have experienced the shattering of what is known, and help them to explore the upside-down, the murky, the unknown, to expand their horizons of possibility and challenge what they thought was important. I work both 1-1 and with groups of people who want to explore their reality, confront transitions and difficulties, and explore new realms of possibility and meaning-making.
The landscape of ‘wellness’
Life is fascinating, captivating and full of possibility, and yet it can also be uniquely challenging, anxiety-provoking and complex. How do we navigate life’s uncertainties, and how do we find a way to step into all that it has to offer?
Sometimes it can be tempting to stay comfortable and seek out only the things that we label as ‘positive’ or familiar. However, when we do this, we often miss out on all that life can be – we’re not truly experiencing both the difficult and the easy with passion and authenticity.
For those who want to make changes, ‘Personal Development’ is the cornerstone of the support on offer. For some people, this type of development is just what they need. It can be hugely helpful, leading people out of confusion or helplessness, teaching them how to adapt, set boundaries, make choices and move towards a life they want. But it can also oversmplify and flatten the landscape of existence. Lead too easily to solutions for the ‘problem of living’ that might just be unsolvable….or which might just not need solving after all.
Coaching and therapy often promise to get you results and fix problems. You’ve been told what your issues are. You’ve been given an explanation of what needs fixing. You’ve been sold a destination. And often then, you’ve done all the work – mindset update, nervous system reset, looked at your limiting beliefs, done your trauma healing, taken part in somatic sessions. And yet…..
Somehow something just doesn’t sit right. You’ve done what you were supposed to, but you still have questions, you still wonder ‘is this it?’.
Another perspective
Existential Development begins when we reach the limits of what Personal Development can really offer us. It’s what happens when we arrive at our stirived-for place – physically, financially, emotionally, psychologically – and we still find we have big, unanswered questions. Existential Development is a space of exploring. Not to necceessarily find a purpose, a meaning, a vision, or even a ‘why’ – all of these can orient us for sure, but having a direction to walk in is not the same as finding a metaphysical meaning
Existential Development asks us to do two things:
1 – deconstruction – to unearth the assumptions that underlie our goals, our inherited ideas of success, and our invisible values and stories about our worlds. In my work, we do this by looking at ourselves and our lives from new, obscure angles, through objects, stories, artistic expressions and deep questions. Instead of finding answers, we find new ways to sit with uncertainty, unbecoming, unfinishedness and unknowing.
2 – participation – to find new ways to inhabit the uncertainty, to be deeply curious about life and to take part more fully in it, to know that we create ourselves as we participate, and that life itself can be a creative response to the uncertainty of existence. In my work, we do this by taking new, exploratory, experimental actions in our daily lives. We try out different ways of being, and we reflect on and discuss our experiences and observations, our sensations and our perceptions. From here, we become able to move in the world more fully, with more curiosity and courage.
For a more in-depth idea of how I work and my philosophies of being, check out the ‘about‘ page.
To find out how you can work with me, you can email me at info@clarekeritha.com and I’ll let you know about upcoming group programmes and any openings for in-depth 1-1 work.
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”
Ben Okri, Author
Explorations that question, challenge and reignite.
