Adrian Scott Counsellor Supervisor MBACP Accred

Free Climb
After 19 days of free climbing two young climbers seemingly do the impossible. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson free climb to the summit of the 3,000-foot rock known as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. This was the first time a free ascent of the notoriously difficult section called the Dawn Wall had been achieved. By any steps of the imagination this was an incredible feat. One part of the free climb took 11 attempts to achieve. They had to wait for their fingers to heal after sheering the skin off their fingers trying to find a hold on the rock.

They slept in small tent platforms secured to the rock secured by a rope tethered to the rock wall. The nerve and courage to make this climb must be incredible. To sleep on a cliff face in the wind and rain, without thinking you are going to fall off must take a confidence and belief in your kit and ability that most of us never experience. Dicing with life and death must guve an incredible feeling of being alive. We admire this kind of achievement. The tenacity, the focus and drive needed to make this free climb has a simplicity and purity that most of us cannot attain in our evryday lives. The mundaneness of life is complex, messy, and unclear.

An alternative opinion is that these guys are nuts. Why would they do something like this? Why would they risk their lives on something so meaningless and empty? Are thw cut off from feeling? What’s the point? To be loved and admired? To satisfy the ego? Life is so boring that it has to be pumped up to such extreme limits? Is it an addiction to danger? Then what about the comedown? How long would the adrenalin trip last? How long before the next free climb? How long before they die?

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2015
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

New Years Eve   
New Years Eve is a strange time where the calendar is reset so that the new year can begin again from zero.

For some a time to look back and observe what they have achieved in the previous year for others a looking forward to what can be achieved in the year to come.
As described in Thought for the Day yesterday morning apparently for Samuel Johnson New Year’s Eve was a difficult time. He would stay up until early in the morning wrestling with his thoughts and emotions about what he hadn’t achieved. He struggled to sum up how we felt though was grateful that he had survived another year.
New Years Eve
It can also be a time of regret where we look back and ponder on the things that we wished had not happened or that we had not done.
New Years Eve

By all media reports it has been a dire year of calamity, cutbacks, and fear. Yet is there any argument against feeling that the only and best time to live is right now at the end of 2014. Apart from not having any choice here is
a list of alternative views in the year 2014.

Sexual Abuse
Traditional view: the cover up of terrible revelations of institutionalised sexual abuse not being dealt with by appropriate authorities
Alternative: Finally 2014 is the year that sexual abuse is not a taboo. It can be talked about and recognised and hopefully something done about it. Includs the suspected revelation that sexual abuse of minors is prolific in the political elite.

UKIP
Traditional view: The rise of Fascism.
Alternative: in 2014 a discussion took place about immigration without being labelled racist. Now we can all see who these people are and what they represent.These views have always been held by the right but always underground. Now it is out in the open.

Islamic Fundamentalism
Traditional view: the slaughter and mass murder of innocent people in the name of a religion which is not the intention of the religion.  The manipulation and brainwashing of young people to give up their lives in suicide missions killing hundreds of people at a time.
Alternative: the outing of repressive regimes supported by the west. An effort to try and express an alternative view to the corruption and morality of the secular world dominated by colonialism, money and an increasing gap between rich and poor.

Finance
Traditional view: the domination of the finance industry’s greed and when it goes wrong has to be bailed out by the tax payer. The unstoppable force of the market where bankers’ bonuses march on – with the ever increasing austerity cuts in public services in 2015. Large companies rip off UK PLC by not paying tax.
Alternative: the begining of the faintest possibility of a conversation that the money system benefits the few but not the masses. The recognition and mounting anger that the rich elite are becoming more and more rich and that there has to be some system to close the gap between rich and poor. Tax avoidance is now not clever and shameful. We all contribute to this by wanting everything cheaper.

Missing Airplanes / Runaway Refuse Truck
Traditional view: terrible incomprehensible acts of fate which kill people going about their everyday lives.
Alternative: it could have been us. We are lucky. We all hang onto life by a thread. We should try and appreciate it.
New Years Eve

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.   New Years Eve
New Years Eve

Arthur Howes
Arthur Howes (1950-2004) was a documentary film maker making films on tight budgets pleasing himself on what he thought would make powerful watching rather then being told to fit to a format of heightened drama  to gather big audiences.

Last month SOAS screened his documentaries marking his legacy. At then end of the day, one of his colleagues on the panel described how he hated television and its funding methods. It was too restricting and forced the documentary maker into making work for TV rather than letting stories unfold and take place at their own pace.
Arthur Howes

“Arthur bemoaned the funding culture at institutions such as the BBC, where documentary seemed to be valued only if it had heightened dramatics, voyeuristic intrusion, and the heroic presence of on-camera directors.”
Of course we know TV is not real but do our psyches at some level not recognise this? TV taps into our unconscious part of our psyche because it is part of the landscape. Like asking the man who has lived next to a mountain about the mountain. He replies: “what mountain?” He is so used to it being there.
Arthur Howes

For example when we try and play out a situation we are going to find ourselves in the future do we heighten the drama TV style?  There is a danger of seeing the way TV presents itself as normal.

A bit like families. Children bought up in abusive families think it is normal. There is no comparison to be made to the influential first years of life. There is no comparison. We just experience it: and that is how it is. These years go into inform us on we react and behave  to situations in adolescence and adulthood. It is only after repeated behaviour that causes us pain do we force ourselves to look at why we keep repeating.
Art and culture is needed to keep reminding ourselves that there are many realities. Realities that are set up by others who have power over us and want us to believe and agree with what they say. Realities that we make ourselves that keeps us safe and help us prosper.

Long live the independent documentary film maker.
Arthur Howes (1950-2004)

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Pension Fear
Sitting with people  of a certain age within shouting distance of retiring from the public sector  the topic of conversation will turn to pensions.

What is usually meant by a public sector pension is an end of salary pension where the amount is guaranteed. This means that the employee has worked hard spending a few decades usually in the same profession and sometimes in the same place of work. The employer will have contributed up to a fifth of their salary into their pension pot. No doubt the employee has worked hard to qualify for this level of contribution, with the pension invested in large collections of pensions to maximise interest.  It cannot be compared to a private pension where the contributions are only made by the worker, and only individually invested producing less interest.
Pension Fear

This employee has worked hard week in week out for decades in the security that there is a time when they can retire, and that they will be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living when retired. This word security is interesting. The finance industry uses this word to sell its products by preying on our innate insecurity needed to protect ourselves. This makes the public sector worker invest in this insecurity by setting up a system of keeping the person fearful and working. Fearful that if they stop working and contributing to their pension pot they will not have a comfortable retirement.
Pension Fear

This can lead toan employee becoming institutionalised. That is to say a reliance is created on the work institution to maintain security. This can lead to a mind set that expects everything to be predictable and secure. This can create a conservative view of the world.
Pension Fear

Ultimately at an extreme this is true. If you have no money at retirement then it will not be fun. A lot of public sector workers like cleaners, receptionists, & support workers do not have a large salary so a pension is important. The people I focus on here are the public sector workers who have good salaries with good retirement pensions.
Pension Fear

To go back to the conversation. There is a familiar pattern. Firstly you are asked if you have a pension. If you say ‘yes’ you pass some kind of test that you are a similarly minded person and deemed safe! If you say ‘no’ you are regarded as a mad person who has been wasting their time not having a pension. They ask what are you going to do? Aren’t you worried? Then whatever the response to this question is the speaker will launch into the merits of their own pension.

The pension fear is contagious. Fear creates doubt and uncertainty where there was freedom and creativity.
Pension Fear

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.   

Control                                                                                                                                            
We all need control. It gives us a choice to choose which direction to go in, or what we want to do. It helps us to feel safe in situations where we feel vulnerable. For instance controlling our own environment. If it is too noisy we can ask someone to turn it down or move into another room. At work we want an environment where we can focus and concentrate.

The wider we look in our lives the more out of control we feel. We feel we can do nothing about the budget cuts in our organisation, the way the government is spending tax money, or preventing war and bloodshed. So it seems we focus on it in our personal lives because this is where we can have most impact.

Control has a bad press as it is mostly mentioned when it has a negative impact.This is when the control goes too far. OCD and hoarding are obvious examples of control going too far. The idea of the control freak is common in describing people who we think have overstepped the mark.

The controlling personality can extend into the work role by wanting power over other people in an organisation which can move from the organised into the rigid and uncompromising. Middle managers working in mental health are a good example. The controlling manager needs an environment where it is not quite possible. What is the point if everything can be controlled? It has to be just out of reach so that the control can carry on being applied.

Nothing is more unique, unpredictable and out of control than mental health.  Working in an organisation providing services to mental health users can be a good arena for control. The case for more control is usually argued under the premise making services more business like and professional. In a lot of organisations this can be well argued as the staff team can be disorganised and in fire fighting mode. It can be difficult to discern between staff and users. The chaos of the mental health of the users transfers onto the staff team and organisation.

So someone in control comes into this kind of environment and wants to take power. At the first stage the benefits are palpable. Better systems, perhaps more paid support, a renewed effort to accredit to a professional body. The second stage is where staff who carry the longevity and organisational knowledge start being monitored to assess their business like performance. The control always assesses their performance to be not good enough. Depending on the strength of the staff team and the support & loyalty they can gather from senior management and trustees a battle begins to see who can win. The old or the new. People start to go off sick, sometimes never to return. The trustees suddenly wake up to the fact that they have a war in the organisation. Then somebody external is drafted in to sort it out.
And then we are back in the cycle of who controls who!

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

So the Elgin Marbles are on display in St Petersburgh, Russia. 
This is seen as important as art transcends the frosty relationship between the UK and Russia. The UK could have acted out and not sent the art. This is a noble act of art over politics.
The Director of the British Museum from where they were lent, said that “he hoped the Greek government would be delighted.” Really?
Greece has always maintained that Lord Elgin stole them when Greece was under the rule of the Turks. Some say that he was a thief and others someone who rescued artefacts from further damage and neglect.
This can happen in families. The last parent of figure from a last generation dies and all the relatives go in for a grab of whatever they can find. The main consistent point is that whatever was done by the perpetrator is advertised as being the right thing to do and is generally irreversible. This resolve hardens over time, making actual and concrete what started as an act that could be seen at best problematic and worst criminal.
Time has a personality which turns and fixes wrongs into right.

Only when an appreciation of the depth of the crime is recognised such as the latest sexual abuse revelations, is a trauma is revealed. Then it becomes a painful process of further revelations. One revelation cannot not be singly revealed: revelations happen in a series. Attached, connected and peeling off together exposing more and more that was not intended to be revealed. Then an examination of context and culture reveals the state’s lack of action in an environment which supported the crimes.

And so it is the same with the Elgin Marbles. What would be revealed if the Elgin Marbles were returned to Greece? A precedent might be set where half the worlds’ museum displays would have to return their artefacts to their country of origin.
So the Elgin Marbles stay in the UK only to be lent out.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Russia Bad Boy
The BBC reports that the Russians are increasing their covert military exercises in Europe. Is this is in response to the sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggressive tactics in Ukraine? So in retaliation Russia plays the bad boy. Provoking and sniping at the heels of law and order, Russia acts out is own naughty id based inclinations of doing what Russia pleases and not considering the consequences.
Is it significant that I use the masculine gender ‘boy’ or that the European Union is seen as doing exactly what it likes? Many see the EU as a self serving gravy train. This kind of behaviour of aggression and potential violence is more associated with boys and men. It happens in the classroom and workplace.
Never met the student or employee who is always playing up or not towing the company line? But the message is different. Russia has always been the bad boy, its brooding mass looming over the more genteel manners of Europe. It is not long since the end of the Cold War where it was clear that Russia was playing the Russia Bad Boy role.

With its free market revolution can we assume it has joined the group of Western democracies? Not really! It wants to exist apart so as a short cut has to hang onto its bad boy role. To be different and apart  Russia plays the bad boy role as a repeat of what it has always done.How does it express its obvious difference and history in a more calm and considered manner? At the moment it cannot. As it is for us all. To create energy to be different or individualise  there must be a threat of being unnoticed, forced to change, or even eradicated. We are not acceptable as ourselves. This makes anyone insecure and unable to grow from a more secure base.

The democratisation of the world American style needs to be resisted by Russia. Its identity has always been in opposition to the US. So it is carrying on this role. It will take a slow down of the threat of the americanisation of the world and more security in its self and who it is to be different in a more calm and measured way.
Russia Bad Boy

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.   

Russia Bad Boy

Overshare is the term for giving out your personal details on social media. People go onto social media sites the same way they go into their kitchen. It is safe and familiar, and whenever we feel safe and familiar we let more of ourselves out into the open social world. There are obvious dangers to this. People say too much or post pics of themselves that they might regret afterwards. Then other people pick up on this information and use it against the person.
Overshare is seen as making an effort to make a connection with someone. Being on social media is used to invite intimacy and belonging into peoples’ world from the safety of their own kitchen.
To challenge this idea to make an actual connection with someone is more complex. Does Overshare create a connection? Maybe. But if not then what does? Common interests? Being a friend? Sharing experiences? Perhaps there is no easy way to describe a connection with another person. It is something so universal that there is no way to capture it. Thank Goodness. Overshare expresses a need to make a connection but the chances are that it gives people information to tease or antagonise. There is no way to discern whether social media makes connections for people or not.
To be positive social media is a brilliant way of connecting with people all over the world every minute of the day. It creates groups of people who can share things about each other never possible before.
On the other side it can create a false reality where people do not have the opportunity to practice real life skills face to face to make a connection.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

Admin
Admin is everywhere. You cannot do anything without some sort of administration.
Organising your music online to re-arranging your cutlery draw. It is all administration.

Yet it seems there are some people who are very suited to it and others not at all.
Some people are good at setting up admin processes like creating named folders for all your emails, colour coding underwear, or creating groups for your cd collection. But we really sets the natural administrators apart is the upkeep and maintenance of administration. Do you input your stats, check the records, pore over the accounts daily, weekly, or monthly?

Judgments are made on how people do their administration. Are you an engineer brain or creative person? An engineer brain is very good at administration. The exactness and importance of getting everything right is so important even life threatening. Are you thought of as an anal person? Are you told you have traits of OCD?
Is an attention to detail a sign of a good administrator. Many people do not pay attention to the detail or small print.

But then what is behind the administration?
What is the motivation of wanting to administer. Keeping order? Managing chaos? Trying to be safe? Being  in control? Being safe is an issue for all of us. But sometimes the urge to be safe can consume us. On over riding sense of safety can be to counteract an over riding fear. A fear of anything. A fear of life itself.

Could the level of administration skills signify a level of fear?

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.

The super rich have been living it up for 2000 years  and have not changed much.
Apparently the super rich all want to live in the UK.The stability and rule of law make it very appealing for people who have lots of money. Billionaires can live here with all the facilities of an industrial nation paying little or no taxes, while their money is stored in tax havens around the globe.

One thing all billionaires have in common is that they are only focused on acquiring more money. Just money.
That is the only focus. You might think we are like this. But are we? Most of us would like our mortgages paid off, go on expensive holidays but are not solely focused on accruing money for the sake of it. We are interested in work and the outcome of what we do? Are billionaires?

Apparently billionaires are boring people and look and act the same all over the world. They surround themselves with other billionaires for protection. They belong to the same clubs eat at the same restaurants. What do you do when you can buy everything? You look for perfection. Perfection is about not seeing what is right but what is wrong! Billionaires are complaining all over the world in expensive hotels to maitre d’s about that detail that is not right and does not come up to scratch.

Or the billionaire’s wife worried about her husband not sleeping. How had he weathered the recession? His worry was that he could not afford the upkeep of his Gulf Stream jet. Or the helicopter which allowed him to visit his house in the Hamptons without sitting in traffic.

Everything is relative and has a context particularly around money and love. Friends claim poverty living in big houses sending children to fee paying schools. Its all relative. It is a good reminder that when you are spoken to think: Who is the speaker? What is their motivation to say what they have said? What experience do they have?
We all speak form our own position and life experience. This makes it hard for us to listen and understand the joy and pain of others.

Copyright
Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
All rights reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.