Christian Billington

I am sure there are very few people reading this who are not familiar with the term ‘self care.’ This concept was introduced to me in the context of burnout, secondary trauma and the perils of working with people some fifteen years ago. At that time, I felt pretty invincible, like I had ‘myself’ together. In hindsight, I had a lot to learn, and if I am totally honest, at that time I had no concept of the valuable professional and life lessons that I could have learned from veteran practitioners in our field. Here’s hoping that you are more self-aware than I was…

I remember clearly. We sat by her well used kitchen table as she busied herself making us some tea. Twenty minutes prior we had notified her that her husband of many years had died in the night. We cleaned him and lifted him back into bed and asked if she wanted to say goodbye. I cannot remember now, but I think she did. Tears and prayers followed and then in typical British fashion she set about making us tea as we awaited the police so we could ‘green up’ for the next case. This was my first experience with death, the dead and a survivor.

Viktor Frankl made an impression on me. I was awestruck by his way of thinking years ago. I have since been drawn to existential theory, the purpose we find in life and how we make meaning of it.

Life can be hard sometimes and there is always something to think about, but for the most part it is a wonderful adventure. I love the universality of sharing this space with so much diversity and difference that it can sometimes feel overwhelming. I am happy that we are able to adapt in such remarkable ways; to adversity, to disability, to environmental changes, all of which allows life to continue for the most part unabated. There is a certain resiliency we possess and I wonder everyday where it derives from.

“Actually, no I don’t understand. Help me to understand what you mean.”