Helena Clayton Newsletter - View this email in your browser

Leadership Developer • Coach & Facilitator • Writer

Welcome to the October 2025 Newsletter

You might not be with me on this, but I've been liking the seasonal shift with rain like stair rods one minute and T-shirt-level sun the next.  I like the closing in of the days too - drawing the curtains earlier and earlier. Harvesting. Getting ready for the winter ... 

It was a month of continuing gentle and steady post-op recovery; a week down on Gower with Dom and the usual blissful mix of walks and reading and snoozing on repeat, with cockles and laverbread to remind me I'm Welsh; back volunteering in the art room at a local hospice after the break for my op and recovery; stewing damsons for the freezer - our two little damson trees producing masses of fruit for the first time in 11 years. 

This month, here's: 
- an updated take on the 7-eyed model of supervision, for those of us interested in systemic lenses on things
- a new network / group on LinkedIn for folks interested in the connection between therapy, coaching and spirituality
 - another exploration of the unknown - this one a new programme for coaches wanting to work with the dream worlds of their clients
 - and a few resources to remind us that we are better together in these polarising times
 - a new Love Lab date in 2026 as the November one filled so quickly
- a request to let me know if a workshop on endings & beginnings would be something you might sign up for. 
 - and a whole heap of great books ...

Giving you wave until November, with a reminder that we only have each other, we are stronger together and now is not the time to turn away from anyone. 

With love
Helena x


(pic: Anu Tuominem)

Many of you in coaching and consulting will know and work with the 7-eyed model of supervision.  I like it a lot and find it a really helpful guide for my supervision work with both individuals and systems.

All models should evolve as we evolve, and now Clare Beckett-McInroy offers us an updated version of this model, adding in 2 more lenses that build on what's already there. Eye 8 invites in an existential view considering mortality and meaning.  And Eye 9 brings in what might be unknown and in the energetic field.  You can read more here.

(pic: Jo Horswill)

If you were in any way drawn to those two new lenses I mentioned above, you might like the look of this new network, The Psychospiritual Network, convened on LinkedIn by Lee Chalmers.

Lee, like many of us, sees that coaching has deeper dimensions and greater potential to support as humans as we go about our messy and sacred business of just being alive. Here's what she says:

There’s a quiet revolution happening in the helping professions — and it’s psychospiritual. The world doesn’t need more surface-level development. It needs practitioners who can hold the whole human — psyche, soul, and shadow included. In a world of AI we need to be radically human but what does that mean and how do we do it?

For years, I’ve worked in the space where psychology meets soul, witnessing how transformational this fusion can be. Now, I’m launching The Psychospiritual Network — a bold new home for coaches, therapists, and guides who are done pretending that depth, mystery and meaning don’t belong in professional spaces. For those who work at the edge where psychology/coaching/therapy meets spirituality. Where deep inner work and the mystery of simply being alive aren’t separated, but integrated.

If you’re bringing the sacred into systems, or longing to — come join us.

This is a community for those who:
- Weave together the psychological and the spiritual (whatever that means to you!)in their work
- Feel isolated in traditional coaching or therapy spaces
- Want to connect with others walking this nuanced, meaningful path
- Crave bold conversations, rich collaboration, and professional kinship

I've joined - for sure.  So maybe I'll see some of you there at the first gathering on 19 Nov - a Zoom session with Lee and Aboodi Shabi.

(pic: Karlee Rawkins)

There might be a bit of theme emerging in this Newsletter but two things with some commonality appeared in my awareness at around the same time and so I'm going with it.

One is a new book coming out in December called Coaching the Unconscious, in which Laurence Barrett explores how coaches might work with symbols and dreams 'beneath the surface of the mind'.  Looks really good.

And the other is a programme from the wonderful teacher Martin Boroson, called Waking Up To Dreams.  In it, you explore ways, through working with the unconscious and exploring dreams, to help bring the client's 'back office' more on line and be put in service of the work you're doing together.  It's really rare to see something like this for coaches.  I almost signed up for myself this Autumn until I realised I was already over committed but it's a strong contender for me in 2026. 

 
(pic: Louise Laplante)

There was difficult stuff this month not least the killing of Jews at a London synagogue, the shooting of Charlie Kirk in the US and the response from the US government, and the far right coming out of the fringes in the UK and making their presence fully felt in a way that's not happened before.  

A few things that appeared at around the same time that might be helpful...

The new book from Deborah Rowland arrived after being pre ordered some time ago.  Called From Ought To Is: Catalysing Change and Movement In A Polarised World, it explores our loyalties and our blind allegiances to our 'must do's'...and how they get in the way of our openness.

And this post from Sharon Blackie begging us not to burn witches (or to turn against the people who showed up for Tommy Robinson ...you get the gist)  even though they seem so 'other' to us, and instead really hold onto curiosity as a way to stay in our humanity.  

And that in turn reminded me of this podcast episode where scientist Ella Al-Shamahi speaks so clearly about the need to include in scientific research those people whose views about science are very different from, and even oppose your own, because without them we'll get less good science. And her own story of opening her mind is extraordinary. 

We don't need higher fences.  We need to build bigger tables. 

(pic: Victoria Crowe)

So The Love Lab in November is full (and please do get in touch if you'd like to be added to the wait list ...)

But I'm delighted to say that I'm going to run another one quite soon - on 24 March 2026 - as it looks like there's the interest.  It'll be at Kings Cross, and the link to book is here.  If you held off booking the November one and then found it full, please do jump in early for this one, not least because I'm likely to make it a slightly smaller group. 

And Acts of Love for Tough Times  - sessions running on 20 November and 16 December and booking is open. 

(pic: William Fran de Morgan)

I'm developing a new workshop exploring beginnings and endings in organisations. I've been squirreling away some creative and interesting ideas for the workshop for ages and I'm excited about it.

To state the bleedin' obvious, this is a time of enormous change and flux with many of our familiar ways of being and working changing and ending, many of our relied-on structures crumbling, much of what we've been able to lean on and take for granted feeling insubstantial and no longer reliable and solid.

Some things are ending. 

At the same time, things are beginning;

This one day workshop (likely in person) will explore how we can: create good endings to provide the basis for good beginnings; the importance of honouring the past so that the future can emerge; our own relationship with endings and beginnings and how that helps or hinders the ways we deal with and lead endings and beginnings in organisations; how attending to endings and beginning can helps us feel grounded ad stable in disruptive change.. and more.

I'll draw on 25 years of supporting people and organisational leaders in change; the field of systemic constellations, shadow work and psychodynamics; ritual and the vital role it plays in supporting change; regenerative and nature-based practices ... and also more. 

It's a new idea and so please do drop me a quick note if that sounds like something you might be up for.  And if there's a particular aspect of endings/beginnings that you'd like to explore, let me know too so I can build that in. 

If a) it seems there's interest or b) if I feel the call to set it up anyway and see what happens, then the date will be Friday 27 March and I'll come back next month with a venue and a link to book.

(pic: Judith Bergerson) 

And talking of beginnings, two good things have begun. 

The first is a community space called Poesis, set up by Fay Andrews-Hodgson, and is 'new kind of community space in York where people of all ages come together to explore what it means to be human during this time of profound planetary change. We’re creating a place that’s part cultural hub, part learning space, and part community living room - where you can belong. Through meaningful dialogue, hands-on workshops, and simply being together, we’re finding ways to engage with both global challenges and our inner lives, as a community.'  Sounds like just what we need, right?

The second is a new newspaper, set up by the mighty Carole Cadwalladr and an all-women team of ex-Guardian and Observer journalists who left after the papers sold themselves to Tortoise Media. Called The Nerve, it's news worth backing, I think, for independent investigative journalism. They say 'our beat is culture, politics and tech. We believe culture - made by humans for humans - is the best guide to understanding our increasingly chaotic world. So we’re putting it first. We will cover culture in its broadest sense - the arts, books, games, food - and how tech is dramatically altering our politics and our lives. We also promise to bring some joy. We will celebrate the best culture that lifts our spirits.'

(pic: Rebecca Vincent)
 

Nearer

If you want to get warm
     you must stand
     near the fire: if
     you want to be
     wet you must get
     into the water.
     If you want joy, 
     power, peace, eternal 
     life, you must get
     close to, or even into, 
     the thing that
     has them.



CS Lewis

(pic: Elena Loginova) 

A right old mix of reading this month, and a long list due to a week away. 

I'm not so sure about The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Hariko Murakami as a recommendation - you'd need to be a fan of his, I think. And I sort-of am. For me, I sort of enjoyed it but couldn't swear to understand it. The Religion from Tim Willocks was totally understandable, in contrast.  It's been on my shelf for about 10 years after so many people in my Book Group said it was great.  And it was a bloody and rollicking read, if about 20% too long.  In complete contrast was Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, and wow, she can write. Chimamanda Adichie’s Dream Count was a great read for my holiday week.   And Elmore Leonard’s super-clever Get Shorty brings the fiction list to a close. 
 
Non fiction: part way through Deborah Rowland’s latest, From Ought to Is is really thought provoking for anyone in the middle and muddle of change – bringing her systemic constellations lens to the work of change and walking us through how letting go of what we have come to think is true creates movement and possibility in a system. You might have read her earlier book Still Moving, but you don’t need to have. 

Interestingly, along similar-and-very-different lines, I dipped into Tonia Silver’s It’s Not Your Money which is also about letting go of attachment to things being a certain way and opening to what might be there for you instead. 

And the middle third of Robert MacFarlane's Is a River Alive? (we read it in chunks in Book Group - but not the same Book Group as loved The Religion ...) was another wonderfully written piece about how human life and river life in Chennai try to murder each other and yet still survive. 
 

Most definitely a quieter month than other Septembers, not least because a major client has some major problems and has paused all leadership development work, including a big project with me. Such is the world of work at the moment ... a lot of change and uncertainty. 

My first trip away post-op for Module 4 of a leadership programme with a client in the Midlands.  We explored why change efforts are so difficult to get right and even move in the direction you want them to go, including in their own system, and then worked with them and their Exec team on a real piece of change work. It was good stuff. 

I met the SLT of a small London charity ahead of starting a management development programme with their staff - not least a way for me to understand the lived experience of leading a small organisation that is rooted in the community. 

For several reasons, my work looks like being quieter over the next 6 months than it's been for a decade.  And I notice I'm not remotely freaking out about that - more curious to see what I'll do with the space.  I even felt a bit of excitement the other day ...


(pic: Cori Lee Marvin)
 

Please do forward this Newsletter on, if you know others who might appreciate it.  Otherwise, do let me have any feedback or reactions -  I love hearing from you.  You know where I am on LinkedIn, or connect via Email. Or call me of course. 

Helena x

helena@helenaclayton.co.uk
07771 358 881

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