Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Psychotherapist and founder-patron of Child Bereavement UK, specializing in childhood bereavement and training health professionals.
On the island
Eight records
Reminds me of really happy summer holidays, walking in the hills, being with my family and my children, picnics in the rain and peace.
Reminds me of the great thing of being part of a big family, that feeling of being in a band together.
About remembering the children and how incredibly lucky I am to have them.
Something About the Way You Look Tonight
Chosen for Diana, Princess of Wales. I miss her and especially her laugh.
Memories of extraordinary families who have found a way of living again after something so unbearable.
Blue MoonFavourite
About Michael, my husband. My relationship with him has been the single most important and the best relationship in my life.
About my best girlfriends who know me really well and love me whatever I'm like.
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
Takes me to memories of momentous experiences like my grandchildren being born. It nearly always makes me cry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:44Does it feel unfamiliar and slightly unnerving to be here having to talk about yourself?
It feels extremely unfamiliar. I'd much rather it was the other way round, but I'm delighted to be here.
Presenter asks
1:58Is the joy and laughter you see in sessions something you recognise in your work often?
Absolutely. I mean, the minute the parent is talking about their child that has died and they go back and they remember. You know, it's often the very small things that they remember that particularly touch them. Their whole face lights up. And within a session people will move from being kind of frozen in grief to kind of laughing r and couples laughing together remembering the child that they loved is a very precious thing.
Presenter asks
2:41What would you say to convince sceptics that counselling is time and money well spent?
I'd say to them, you know, counselling isn't a panacea for all ills. But it's come on leaps and bounds. There's so much good research about what we can offer and how we can help people now. The two biggest difficulties are depression and anxiety, and they have a huge crippling effect on people's lives. And having insight into yourself and a greater awareness of all the different aspects of what you're feeling, of what's happening in you, gives you more choices. But also I think they feel more connected with themselves, and that allows them to be more connected with other people. And when you have that, you feel that you have more resilience and more kind of efficacy in the world.
The keepsakes
The book
General Wavell
It's a poetry collection, and he's divided it up into love, death, hate, war, the call of the wild. And so it's a kind of brilliant way of kind of revisiting my life through these different poems that I haven't read before.
Presenter asks
5:44Were you aware of being part of the Guinness family's social importance when you were growing up?
Absolutely not at all. I was a little bit aware of it when I went to Oxford to to do a secretarial, and people made assumptions that I was part of a big, very grand family, which isn't really what I felt about myself.
Presenter asks
16:30What was the catalyst for you becoming interested and deciding to train as a counsellor?
I was asked to be chairman of Birthright of the fundraising bit. And I mean I know it sounds naive, but really babies dying wasn't in my mind. I just didn't think it happened. I had no idea about it and it kind of overwhelmed me. And I'd been so lucky I'd had four children without any problems and had always felt lucky, but I never fully realized how lucky I was. And I also went to a support group with a friend, and I didn't really know that people could talk so personally about their feelings, and I was rather blown away by that. So the combination of those two things meant that I became interested in counselling.
Presenter asks
21:54Do you think the commentary that Diana's death marked a change in how British people deal with grief is fair?
I do think it's a fair comment. I think it is very interesting. I mean, I think what she. Represented and in some way was really expressed was. that what people want to see is your authentic self. You know, when she said hello to a child or picked up a child, it wasn't a mechanical act, it was a loving, warm human being that felt something, and that was transmitted from her. So when she died, I think people felt they lost a leader in. sort of truthful expression in a way. and they really felt the sadness of it.
“I'd much rather it was the other way round, but I'm delighted to be here.”
“Their whole face lights up. And within a session people will move from being kind of frozen in grief to kind of laughing r and couples laughing together remembering the child that they loved is a very precious thing.”
“I kickbox and I could kick you very hard.”
“When a child dies, medicine has failed. And What Families Need Is Your Humanity.”
“I will be desperate on this island. The two things I like most, eating and people, uh it will be it will be a real problem for me.”