Clare Flourish
1,913 FOLLOWERS
Moving through the world, making myself memorable. This blog is about Life: everything that interests me, which is everything. And as I am a trans woman, it is about my Trans experience.
Clare Flourish
2d ago
In therapy, someone might value their own feelings for the first time. The therapist finds the person’s wounds, the times in the past where the world has overwhelmed them. Later there will be a time for an academic understanding. I have no idea about other clients. But for me as client, healing comes in being ..read more
Clare Flourish
4d ago
In Internal Family Systems, we find unconscious parts of ourselves which could not deal with a situation we were in, or the feelings that evoked, so blanked it from consciousness. The unconscious part, the “Exile”, is defended by a “Protector”, a way we react: it comes forth when the Exile is reminded of its shame ..read more
Clare Flourish
5d ago
There were valuable allies speaking on the Cass review in Parliament, and we should celebrate their bravery. Their points were ignored. Kirsten Oswald, speaking for the SNP, said decisions on health should be made by clinicians, not politicians, called for additional funding for trans health, and asked about a conversion therapy ban. Dawn Butler, Labour ..read more
Clare Flourish
6d ago
Genspect is a trans-denialist organisation: its members deny that trans is a way people are, and that transition is a valid or valuable life-path. Therefore therapists who are members should never be consulted about anything gender-related, and nothing it says about trans people or gender dysphoria can be taken at face value. Trans people exist ..read more
Clare Flourish
1w ago
Trans people should not have to pass, but we do. We should not be medicalised, having to undergo painful and dangerous procedures. Trans men should be able to keep their breasts, if they want, for any reason. Trans women should be accepted as women however little effort we devote to our appearance just as all ..read more
Clare Flourish
1w ago
I was fortunate to come across one of the few remaining populations of native English dragons. They are very friendly, and even allow people to pet them. See this cheerful grin. Here is a Coypu, or Capybara, or some other mammal beginning with C that you can’t quite recall what it looks like. Its greeny-yellow ..read more
Clare Flourish
2w ago
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are not just bad stuff that happened; they have been quantified, defined in a list of ten, and subject to research on their effect on adult health. Here’s the quiz. The ACEs list is about violence- fear of hurt, being hit, sexual assault- and being unprotected- feeling nobody loved you, not ..read more
Clare Flourish
3w ago
John Singer Sargent in his portrait of Madame X, or Mme. Pierre Gautreau (Virginie Amélie Avegno), achieves an effect I have not seen elsewhere. I like to sit and look at paintings, and try to avoid the reflection of the spotlights. But here, Sargent uses that reflection to highlight her features. From almost any angle ..read more
Clare Flourish
1M ago
I am looking out of my own eyes. I have rescued something within me, that was stuck or imprisoned. My unconscious sense of what I needed led me. I trusted it, and followed it, step by step, without any idea of where it was going. Kate held the space, in love, without commenting. To contact ..read more
Clare Flourish
1M ago
Should the BBC refer to me as “male”? Should it call any trans woman, or trans women in general, “male”? I find it grossly offensive. It denies the truth and value of my being a trans woman. It reduces me to a gonad. It takes my trans joy, the joy in expressing my true self ..read more