Hi From Cardiff, Wales, UK.

[martydrury]

Hello to you all.

I'm Marty and I'm a therapist and coach. It all started back when I was a journalist (national magazines in more than one country, writing for the BBC, my own column in a newspaper etc). I started writing for the health pages and alternative health pages and met many hypnotherapists, NLP people and personal development experts. These people became friends after I interviewed them for magazine and newspaper articles.

I wanted to train to become a therapist and coach but I didn't think I could do it. But in 2010, I had a serious accident and broke my left elbow. I had to do something stop distract myself from the pain I felt during the months of recovery and physio so I really thought about my career direction. And decided to take a chance. Even though it meant doing so whilst I was still recovering from the accident.

I travelled to London over and over again for training and passed my course last month. Now embarking on working with clients and further training.

It's cost a lot and been hard at times. Really hard. But my friend Jamie Smart is right: "there's less competition for what you really want then there is for what you think you can get because loads of other people are only going for what they think they can get".

I also run the website: Feel Good About Yourself which is a blog to help people increase their self esteem and take back the choice to feel good about themselves.

I've done a lot of change work with people suffering from social anxiety, social phobia, lack of confidence, low self esteem, poor/negative self image etc.

I'm a witch and follower of a Pagan religious path. Been a Pagan for 11 years now after a powerful religious experience. Normally it remains my own subjective, spiritual truth but I have been able to give spiritually related change work to Pagans and others curious to develop their spiritual side. Dogma is a nonsense and I embrace the beauty of all spiritual sides and the beauty of non believers too. Being secure in ourselves and, in so doing, being secure enough to celebrate others being themselves is one of the most powerful pathways to peace we have. So we cherish it.

And cherish yourself. Because however you feel right now, they cannot make another one of you. All of science, all the brilliance in the universe, all the majesty of nature and they still cannot make another one of you. If things are tough, hold on. There will always be another day.

[marinik]

Welcome martydrury. So glad to have you. Hope we have great discussion here. "Fellow" witch greeting you!