CURRENT MISSION

Studying Gestalt psychotherapy in Ealing, London.

ABOUT ME

I love writing, travel, anarchist ideas, Gestalt psychotherapy and dry humour. Also Paris. I founded and run the hugely successful SpokenWord open mic in Paris (see http://spokenwordparis.blogspot.com/ ) as well as The Other Writers' Group at Shakespeare & Company. I was prose editor of Tightrope Books' anthology Strangers in Paris : New Writing Inspired by the City of Light, published 2011.
I've settled in Paris for a while to focus on writing and studying Gestalt, though I've always been fascinated by travel. Read George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London when I was 18 and thought this is what I want to do. Late read Kerouac and then Into the Wild and even Autobiography of a Supertramp, but Orwell got there first for me.
I love Ginsberg's poem Howl and Rimbaud's Saison en Enfer, also Carol Ann Duffy and a lot of others. Am currently editing an anthology of English language writing from Paris which will include something from my all time favourite living author, John Berger.
Counselling people is one of the most amazing ways I spend my time. Gestalt is a humanistic psychotherapy very influenced by Zen, body awareness and existentialism. One of the founders was an anarchist. Another thing I like to do in my spare time is explore the catacombs underneath Paris.

PHILOSOPHY

Authentic contact with wonderful people is... beautiful.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Meeting people, organising SpokenWord. Couchsurfers welcome!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Had a fantastic time in Vienna through CS and have slept on a lot of people's couches over the years...

Interests

Poetry, writing, sunlight and coffee and good conversation.

• writing
• books
• poetry
• coffee
• running
• traveling
• socializing
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - On the Road (Kerouac), G (John Berger), Homage to Catalonia & Down and out in Paris and London (Orwell), Into the Wild (Krakauer)
Poems - Season in Hell (Rimbaud), Howl (Ginsberg)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A sweat lodge ceremony on the Navajo Reservation out in the desert, when staying as a guest of Indians there in support of their campaign to stop uranium mining.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm an English teacher and could teach French too. I'm learning about Gestalt psychotherapy and love talking about that. Also, books & poetry - What is the book that most changed your life? Or the poem?

Countries I’ve Visited

Russian Federation

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Greece, Slovenia, United States

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