I have been incredibly fortunate during this long summer therapy break, to have the support of some wonderful friends, some of whom are some distance away. To all those who have loved me in their hearts – I am so grateful, and send them love from mine.

I hope you will forgive me for making this poem too, about therapy, though I am sure Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a rather different sort of relationship in mind when she wrote it! But I want to use this poem to thank, from the bottom of my heart, her who ‘hearkened to what I said between my tears’ and who looked ‘through and behind this mask of me’. Nothing repels her, and I am incredibly lucky to have her by my side through this journey to – wherever it may lead.

Following on from this poem, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote the following, perhaps more famous, lines: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways….”. My therapist knows that I love her – and these verses capture one way in which that is true…..