Mud, Learning, and Doing Things Differently

Today hasn’t stopped raining. Mud everywhere. Even when the sun pokes its head out, it’s still… mud, mud, mud. There’s definitely something about this time of year. The damp seeps into everything, shoes, jeans, mood, motivation. You can’t quite escape the wetness of the world, even when you try.

I’ve been busy today. Properly busy. I’m currently doing a few different courses because, as a therapist, learning never really stops. Basic qualifications get us started, but the real learning begins once you’re in the work. Right now I’m training in sex therapy, doing a creative trauma course, and adding more addiction training too.

Somewhere between the rain and the reading, I started thinking about learning itself, and how I learn.

I’m very visual. Always have been. My notes are colourful, mapped out, messy in a way that makes sense to my brain. For years, though, I thought I was “thick”. That I just couldn’t learn properly because textbooks didn’t stick. Turns out that wasn’t true at all. Nobody had ever shown me there were other ways to learn.

It was the support of an amazing tutor at university who gently pointed me towards a video instead of another chunk of text. And that was it. I was off. Something clicked. The problem was never my ability, it was the method.

That experience shapes everything about how I work now.

It’s why I don’t do therapy in a rigid, one-size-fits-all way. Because we aren’t all the same. We don’t think the same, feel the same, process the same, or heal the same. What works beautifully for one person might completely shut another down.

Therapy, for me, is about meeting people where they’re at, not where a model or framework says they should be. It’s about gently exploring what works for you. Words, images, metaphor, creativity, silence, movement, talking, not talking, all of it is valid. And we figure it out together, at your pace, with support.

Since realising how I learn, how I learn matters. The right pens. The right notebooks. Dotted paper. Good quality pages. That might sound silly to some, but for many people it’s huge. Sensory experience is real. Scratchy paper and awful pens are a hard no. They shut my brain down before it’s even started.

It makes me wonder how many people are out there thinking they “can’t learn”, when actually they’ve just never been shown how they learn. How many people have struggled unnecessarily because no one offered patience, time, or alternatives.

Support matters.

Being seen matters.

Having someone say “let’s try this differently” matters.

So yes, I do all this learning for my work and for my clients, but here’s a little secret: I do it because I enjoy it. It feeds me. It supports my growth too. I genuinely love learning when it’s done in a way that works with my nervous system instead of against it.

And small win for today: I wrote three of the eight workshops. If you read yesterday’s blog, you’ll know why that matters… 😅

If learning differently is something that speaks to you, keep an eye on my shop page and socials. I’ll be running another note-taking and learning differently workshop soon, where I’ll share all my hints, tips, and ways of doing this without burning yourself out.

For now, stay safe, stay connected, and take gentle care.

Louise