I follow the sun, crossing the equator each year from the Abel Tasman in New Zealand to Wiltshire in the UK.

 

I'm a fully qualified Ignatian spiritual director and professional artist.  For the former, I work mostly on Zoom.  I have a Masters in Adult Learning (Professional Coaching) from Middlesex University in the UK.  In addition to general spiritual direction, I am qualified by the London Jesuits to offer their ancient method of spiritual formation, an astonishingly contemporary and personal transformation through a sort of pilgrimage or school of prayer and spiritual living.  

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I'm working on tailoring the Exercises into shorter retreats and pilgrimages in everyday life.  I am also working on workshops for artists and creatives, combining my main skillsets with a passion for facilitation and empowerment.

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These days, my influences are creative and spiritual.  ​As an artist, I have been a:

• Finalist in the Tasman National Art Award, New Zealand (2021)

• Shown work at the Mckee Gallery in Nelson Suter Art Gallery and Purpose Gallery, Mapua 

• I am a professional working member of the Nelson Suter Art Society​

I am self-taught in England, including courses at:

• Dulwich Art Group & School

• Heatherley School of Fine Art

• Royal Drawing School, Shoreditch, London

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I grew up in Whanganui and Wellington, New Zealand, training in journalism, and left for the lights of London in my twenties.   I enjoyed a certain success in corporate life working in public relations and communications for international PR agencies and for organisations including the Financial Times and The Chase Manhattan Private Bank.  Before retraining in 2000n as an executive coach and facilitator of organisational change, I was managing director of a London-based financial public relations business.  ​In 2020, I returned to New Zealand  for a long-planned sabbatical, driving 17,500 gorgeous kilometres.  

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Newly enchanted by the quality of New Zealand's light and scenery as a practising artist - and encountering something of a spiritual revival - I am fortunate to make Tasman my home for much of each year. 

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I suppose I am something of an example of the focus of my work.  Since entering spiritual direction myself, my life has deepened and expanded in ways I could not have anticipated.  I have rediscovered New Zealand and my roots.  I have discovered that a contemplative life is far from sitting still.  Quite the opposite.  I am still committed to sharing the very best of what I have learned and trained for.  And I am most alive when I am painting, but utterly unconcerned about using my marketing skills on myself.  I have to paint.  That's how I am made. 

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When you work with me, you encounter a surfeit of creativity, warm and generous hospitality, boundless compassion and a sharp marketing-communications brain.  Most of all, I hope you will catch the idea that these lives of ours are a gift and a grand adventure.  Yes, an eternal one.  

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We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time 

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover 

Is that which was the beginning

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple tree 

Not known because not looked for 

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness 

Between the two waves of the sea.

TS Elliot, Four Quartets 

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