Blogs and Reviews
This section contains personal blog posts about life and its challenges.
I have had my share of what Hamlet called “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and I like to write about these rather than bottle them up inside.
A lot of these posts are quite personal, but I am not a particularly private person. I write about the emotional side of work, relationships and even aspects of mental illness. None of this is intended to be prescriptive or is published as profesional advice.
We are all human! The more we can speak about our real experience, the more likely we will be to feel a sense of community and acceptance.
I hope you enjoy these blog posts. Please feel free to email me at peter@coachcreates.com if you want to discuss anything that arises from them.
Personally Speaking
Class Reports: Early Days at Uni
I remember my first few days at University. My group were all dressed in black, or occasionally punk stripes. A few of us wore earrings or make-up. We all loosely held left-wing views, with some of us joining the Marxists, others the Fabians or Socialist Workers, but...
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night ends a month in which the sun is buried and then rises again. I felt a surge of energy as I took down the Christmas decorations this year.
AAP Quarterly: Stirring the Pot
This post mentions the article I submitted for the June 2021 AAP Quarterly journal, of which I was Guest Editor. The article was called “Stirring the Pot,” the title of a short story I wrote as part of a series of creative coaching sessions with Heather Mullin.
AAP Quarterly: Psychosynthesis and Creativity
Contribute to the June 2021 issue of the AAP Quarterly journal. Firm Deadline for Submissions is May 1, 2021 Creativity and Psychosynthesis with Guest Editor Peter Stewart “The seed germinates in the night”. Joseph Conrad, novelist Creativity and Psychosynthesis have...
Letting Go
For some weeks now, I’ve felt like I’ve been holding onto a rock with waves breaking over me, not quite sure what to do next. This feeling relates to a holiday memory from when I was a young man: I had been on a long swim, the weather turned windy, and I ended up...
Anxious Moments
Many people are affected by anxiety. Most people prefer not to talk about it. The blog update below is based on a bout of anxiety that I experienced after several months of UK lockdown in 2020. I found that focussing directly on how I felt was enormously helpful for...
Giving and Taking
The first Annual Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching symposium was held on 14 November 2018. My article about the event begins with Tong-len meditation and ends with equine guided therapy and psychosynthesis.
Blue Monday and the Wolf Moon
Blue Monday is apparently the day that most people feel is the most depressing of the year. This year, it fell on the day after the Super Blood Wolf Moon. I don’t know who decides the date of Blue Monday, nor whether the choice is governed by genuine statistical...
Mixed feelings at New Year
Underwhelming Many of my friends on Facebook, and many coaches whom I follow on Twitter, have described their New Year celebrations and expansive plans for 2019. For myself, this New Year has been more than usually underwhelming. I often say inwardly that I would...
Book, Film and Event Reviews
Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth presents an laternative vision of the purpose and scope of economics.
Coaching The Pilgrims’ Way by Glyn Owens
This is one of those rare books that begins with a story that blows your mind, and then continues on a magical, mystery tour that some will find inspiring , but others may take with a metaphorical pinch of salt. The Pilgrims’ Way runs from four locations in...
The Seven Types by Kenneth Sorensen
The Seven Types Kenneth Sorensen’s book takes what I believe are some less well-known aspects of Roberto Assagioli’s theories, and works these into a colourful and compelling book for self-analysis. I am a colour addict, and I found this an easy read, full of...
5DL by Roger Evans
5DL Roger Evans wrote the Creative Manager in the 1970s, putting a focus on the human dimensions of leadership that at the time was revolutionary. The Five Dimensions of Leadership are Self-Awareness, Awareness of Others, Systemic Awareness, Being Strong but...
The Way of Psychosynthesis by Petra Guggisberg Nocelli
This is a hidden gem. Petra Guggisberg Nocelli has written this biography of Roberto Assagioli in close liaison with the Istituto di Psicosintesi in Italy. It tracks the early growth of Assagioli’s psycho-therapy, his work with Freud and Jung, his movement from...
Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching by Aubyn Howard
Aubyn Howard’s book on Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching is timely given the seismic and convulsive changes in leadership that we have seen in recent months. Aubyn has written a series of Crisis blogs during the Covid-19 crisis, and although this book is not about...
The Roots of Psychosynthesis
THE ROOTS OF PSYCHOSYNTHESIS and the HEART OF ASSAGIOLI [Picture: Panorama Florence] Looking back, I feel blessed that my five year journey into Psychosynthesis has run in parallel with my coming to know the man who founded it – Dr Roberto Assagioli. It’s through the...
Review: Non-Violent Communication
Marshall B. Rosenberg This classic text is just as relevant now as it was when Marshall Rosenberg first conceived of the principle of non-violent communication (often nowadays abbreviated to NVC) in the 1960s. This third edition by PuddleDancer Press is extremely well...
Review: Neuroscience for Coaches
By Amy Brann Published in 2015 by Kogan Page, "Neuroscience for Coaches" is divided into seven main sections. The first two -- Brain Areas and Brain Chemicals -- provide a fascinating guide to the geography of the brain, and the chemicals that allow it to operate. The...
Blackfoot Physics
Quantum physicist F. David Peat spent years talking with friends among the First Nations people of Canada, trying to understand their world view, which he suggests is radically different from that held by many in the west. This book the reader through...