Welcome to My New Website! (Sub-title: An Introductory Dose of Wardism)
Hey, hello, how are you doing?! I would say come on in and make yourself comfortable, but you’re already in, and on the Blog Page!
If you haven’t fully orientated yourself around this website, or what I claim to do, then you might first want to take a look at the About page. Then you might want to have a look at the Therapy Services and Gallery pages. After that, you will either have had enough of this seemingly self-inflated therapist guy, or (hopefully) you will be gaining a sufficiency of intrigue to want to hear a bit more…
SoMe Websites and Me
Let’s us just consider the influence of social media (SoMe) in this day and age. I will admit to being something of a digital immigrant. I had a class at school (in the 1970’s) for a whole academic year called ‘Computer Studies’ – this was in the days when schools didn’t even have computers – and I have to say that all we learned about was binary code…
Nowadays, we all know that SoMe can be a super force for both good and bad. Leaving our ubiquitous thumb-swiping addictions to one side, at the heart of the influence of SoMe are (‘Brand Me’) ‘SoMe influencers’ – and these take varying forms and approaches. Essentially, anyone can promote themselves or anything on SoMe; and many actively seek huge followships and lucrative sponsorships.
I wouldn’t want to necessarily work or claim to be a SoMe influencer – to the cynical eye it can often be seen to be quite vacuous, self-centred and rooted in biased falsity. But, even with that savage criticality, I don’t think it’s too outrageous to show and promote (some) what we do via a humble website, especially if it’s coming from a justifiable place. I am on Twitter (‘X’), somewhere on LinkedIn, and I have just been updated and tweaking my YouTube channel (all found as @keithward01), and here I am with a Blog… But I don’t think I’m really exploiting anything (other than a miniscule spec of cyberspace, and a few seconds or minutes of anyone’s time); I’m not really trying to develop a big following; and I’m not really seeking incredible monetarisation. These things could happen – stranger things have – but, I’m more than happy to stay real and enjoy the overall catharsis, and opportunity for creativity and connectivity.
I guess I’m just too organic for my own (digital and financial) good. And the likely resulting reality of my approach is that it will have little in the way of influence! Nevertheless: small steps, building blocks, good deeds, role modelling, learning scaffolding, information and experience sharing, quiet confidence, resilience, responsibility, positivity, and humility all go a long way in the way of the world.
This new website (which I am quite excited about) is the second version of Bodyworks: Therapy for Health (and Wellness). I launched the first one over 20 years ago (when the internet was still an incredibly exciting and emerging phenomenon). That first website enabled me to present my approach to health and therapy, and it was also an outlet for my enthusiastic, albeit rough and ready (homemade), creative pursuits. It was also used to support my first period of private professional practice.
Ideation
I enjoy creativity – especially ideation (the creative process for generating, developing, and communicating new ideas) and the resulting writing, word-play and graphic development, and the audio-visual presentation and verbalisation that follows on from this. Like most people who are driven with creative practice, most of my seemingly wonderful ideas seem to stay in my head or my notebook, or in various digital files – but I do think it helps my processing to create and record them. My filing systems’, like the storage of stuff in my home, are pretty extensive, and I am indeed a self-confessed digital and physical hoarder!
Personal History
As a ‘child of the 60’s’ in his 60’s, I’m also old enough, and sufficiently experienced and fortunate enough, to actually have had some personal history, and the real sense of both historical and contemporary perspectives on life and health – and understanding something of the meaning of existence empowers me somewhat. Whilst us middle-aged and older populations may lament some of the things that we have seemingly lost, I love the fact that I have one foot rooted in a different era, and one foot planted and moving forward in the now. It is an incredible ‘now’ – for anyone that grew up without more than a couple of TV channels and a landline, then what we have now in the way of technology is real science fact – something to behold and truly appreciate.
Therapy Journey
I worked in numerous clinics around the Midlands for many years, and enjoyed the whole experience. Alongside my own clinical practice, I also developed a lecturing and writing career. I have taught for various colleges and universities, and private training institutes. There was also a period where I ran my own ‘Hands-On Sports Therapy Workshops’. Along the way, I have undertaken diligent and consistent study, and have attended numerous professional development courses – some were prolonged and for specific qualifications, and some were simply for learning and skill development. These have included such areas as: clinical assessment methods; soft tissue and manual therapy techniques; ‘special population’ exercise therapy and rehabilitation; musculoskeletal medicine; counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy skills; naturopathic and traditional complementary therapy; and a master’s degree in teaching and learning.
“It is healthy to find time to actively reflect on what you know and knew, and also what you will know – and all this along with what you do and have done, and also what you might hope and plan to do.”
Throughout my therapy journey, from my very first formal learning day as a mature student (in the early 1990’s) to this current day here and now, I know I am privileged to have learned from so many great practitioners and thinkers, tutors and workers, amazing colleagues, therapy friends, and of course all of my clients – and students! Every day is a school day. I value highly all learning experiences, and I think it is healthy to find time to actively reflect on what you know and knew, and also what you will know – and all this along with what you do and have done, and also what you might hope and plan to do. Being consciously competent is a manifested standard upheld (look out for a future blog on this). Accompanying any awareness, perception, or level of success, I feel, must be a recognisable and firmly ingrained level of personal humility.
Concluding Personal Thoughts
I have thoroughly appreciated my career experiences to date; there have been many highlights, and I hope that there’s a few more years in me yet! In 2022, I took the decision to move from full- to part-time university lecturing, which allowed me the opportunity to finish a big book project, relaunch my freelance practice, open myself up to new working situations, and gain a better work-life balance. For 2024, I made the decision to leave my permanent lecturing role; I am now able to help more people in my local community, and to pursue other projects. In my own clinical work, I generally operate as a one man band; and feel that I am somewhat the careful and respectful individualist maverick within something of a socioculturally and reciprocally altruistic context. In other words, I enjoy working autonomously, holistically and professionally, and perhaps without some of the modifying confines of more formal health settings – I certainly like to create a relaxed and conducively therapeutic environment.
So, there we have it. My first brief/protracted (delete as appropriate) blog entry on my new website. A short/long piece, basically justifying my own existence!
I hope you found this interesting. Stay tuned, keep well, and maybe I’ll see you later : ))