Simon Heathcote is a psychotherapist who has developed a unique way of working, drawing on Jungian concepts, mysticism and archetypal psychology to help return clients to their essence or deep soul. He has been sex and love addiction therapist at The Priory Roehampton, England and senior practitioner of the Conde Nast award-winning The Arrigo Programme. His first career was in journalism. He is an award-winning writer, former newspaper editor and broadsheet travel writer. He has undergone a profound inner journey of meditation which he brings to his work. Simon trained at Broadway Lodge (Britain’s first specialist addiction treatment centre), studied past lives with the late Dr Roger Woolger and was present for the outset of the UK men’s movement under the guidance of Robert Bly. His website is soulvision.co.uk

A Flunky in the Court of the Cat Lady

Suddenly a colossus
she will stride the Atlantic
for her cats — 
Rama & Sita
gods in name & influence.
Have you noticed
how cat can fasten woman
to itself in the way
man cannot?
Is it the fur, the silence
the bewitching look
that penetrating independence
which declares, I may not care
but it’s sooooo good here
I’ll always return?
Subtext — I’m no man.
These are not man but Maine Coons
close perhaps, enough for sure.
In Marin County, their collection
is made questionable by
profligate vets who charge
an arm & a leg for two large
fur balls to cross an ocean.
I am just a flunky in the
royal court — my job to bow
& pay the bills.

Birth of a Hermit

In the half-light of afternoon
she sculpts potatoes.
You know to say nothing — 
her Cordon Bleu course
working its way through.
Coronation chicken was a
favourite, then birds stuffed
inside other birds.
It’s how we transitioned
from the 70s, each new
house needing wider wings.
Were we upper middle
class by then? I don’t know
but I remember how much
it mattered & how little 
I cared for small talk or dry 
sherry with the neighbours.
Steer clear of people, said
the old man, the answer to 
his longevity. A hermit’s
seeds were sown right then.