Roland Evans

Inner Life Therapy and Coaching

Winifred Rushforth: Embodying the Archetype of Wisdom

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Winifred, my first therapist is still with me, possibly more so than 44 years ago. In my therapeutic work I feel, as Winifred would say, that Something is Happening. A mysterious, numinous force unfolds in each moment and especially in certain therapy sessions. Her ideas from Life’s Currency: Time, Energy and Money are a regular topic of conversation with my older clients. I’ve added Attention as the forth primary resource we have to nurture, protect and use consciously. Almost without thought, Winifred permeates my approach to therapy: spiritual openness, spontaneity, attention to the unconscious and particularly, a focus on dreams. [Read more…] about Winifred Rushforth: Embodying the Archetype of Wisdom

Discovering Happiness

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I am two-years-old, toddling across the farmyard behind our house in Wales. I look down and see my favorite precious little book lying in the mud. I don’t know what to do, don’t know to pick it up or keep it safe. I don’t even ask others to help me. Gradually over the weeks, I notice its pages falling apart until eventually it becomes indistinguishable from the grime around it. [Read more…] about Discovering Happiness

Ideas for Contemplation

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I decided to update this old blog post (Random Thoughts) and add ideas as they occur to me.  I hope one or two catch your attention and are useful for reflection and contemplation.
The Ego and the Mind:
  • Make friends with your mind—or live in a tiny room with your worst enemy.
  • And don’t fight with your thoughts. It’s like fighting with a pig—you never win and only get covered in muck (adapted from G.B. Shaw).
  • Thoughts are the voice of the ego, beliefs are its bones.  Never trust your own beliefs!
  • The Ego’s four dark aspects:
    • The wish to be special and the center of the universe
    • The need to control everything and everyone
    • The urge to judge and criticize
    • The tendency to self-deception and blindness.

[Read more…] about Ideas for Contemplation

Surgery and Healing

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Orianne and I set off before dawn for the hospital. Check in was at 5.30 am for a 7.30 operation to remove a large cyst from the left side of my head. I’d had it since I was a baby but it had grown over the years and started pressing on my eye. Now was the time to deal with it.

As we sped along the empty highway, I felt calm and quiet. I knew I had the right head and neck surgeon: it had taken almost a year to find him. To be safe, he had invited two other experienced doctors to do their part: a neurosurgeon and ocular-plastic surgeon. A three-person team of experts was looking after me. The cyst didn’t stand a chance! [Read more…] about Surgery and Healing

The Boulder Massacre

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Another slaughter of innocents—this time in a Boulder supermarket where we’ve shopped many times. During the following week, my clients express their confused disbelief veiling the anger and anguish beneath. We struggled with the questions: Why does this happen? How can we make sense of something so perverted?

Mass murders (under the euphemism ‘mass shootings’) are a normal, almost taken-for-granted part of American life. We grow numb in the face of so many atrocities, hopeless in the face of political inaction. Our awareness and compassion grows thin. We shed a tear, talk with friends, attend a vigil, donate a few dollars to the survivor’s fund and then it slips away. [Read more…] about The Boulder Massacre

The I Ching

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When I was about 17, I came across the Chinese classic, I Ching (John Blofeld’s Book of Change) and used it often to try and obtain a clear sense of direction in my adolescent life.  I constructed a beautiful set of polished wood sticks (rather than the traditional yarrow stalks) and threw then to consult the oracle about life decisions.  Even with my youthful superficial understanding, I was astonished by how accurate [Read more…] about The I Ching