I have been studying and practicing the Diamond Approach for 20 years. It moved me to the depths of my soul so much so that I felt drawn to teach the approach.
I have learnt more than I can possibly account for - the study is never ending and revelations continue. I and we are always becoming and being our nature, so as Anohni sings: Everything is New.
Primarily I have learnt that inquiry is a practice that increasingly becomes a place where I can give myself to myself as I am, a profound and deep acceptance that is possible because the teachings and practices return me to my fundamental nature as the obscurations to that nature are worked with and tended to by presence and its qualities.
I have also learnt that as we digest our early life experiences, cultural impressions and oftentimes trauma, we get to see ourselves and one another more clearly.
I love this work, the teachings, the practices and where they take us.
It isn't always easy, a spiritual path is not a path of ease and comfort, it requires truth seeking and with that the need for wisdom and deepening kindness in the face of the obstacles to the truth of our ultimate nature.
I am particulary drawn to how social structures beyond Mommy and Daddy impact the soul, how oppression and discrimination shape us and can distance us from our nature.
A friend was describing their experiece of the approach and it spoke to me. On my first retreat I heard myself say: "this work embraces me". The depth of the understanding of the soul and all the structures that limit access to our ultimate nature made sense to me, it spoke to me and offered practices and teachings that facilitated increasingly over time, freedom to be, moment to moment. There are so many teachings within the approach that have assited me in approaching myself and others with more depth and understanding. The teachings on hate are fundamentally liberating as well as the humane and wise teachings on narcissism and the wound of value that so many of us carry. The school has been a locaiton where I have been able to explore all of the impressions and imprints upon this particular soul and a means to also explore the impact of discrimination and oppression upon the soul.
The Diamond Approach is not a superficial path, it really is a nooks and crannies kind of path, looking into all the troubles of what it is to be human and how we might live more fully as our nature whilst we encounter the joy of discovering and speaking the truth of our experience and our nature.
Published work includes:
Listening in Colour: Creating a Meeting Place with Young People Robert Downes, Sue Lee, Foluke Taylor-Muhammad (Young People in Focus 2002).
Reimagining the Space for a Therapeutic Curriculum – a Sketch, (co-authored with Foluke Taylor in Black Identities and White Therapies: Race Respect and Diversity. PCCS 2021)
Queer Shame: notes on becoming an all-embracing mind in Queering Psychotherapy, Edited by Chance Czyzselska, Confer Books 2022.