Roger Stennett
Roger Stennett
M.A. (Cantab) HPD, C.B.T (Hyp)
The site is divided into sections covering
my experience in the following areas :
Film Screenwriter & Dramatist
University Creative Writing Tutor
Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapist
Martial Arts - Aikido - Instructor
__________________________________
“ I am a professional writer, film-maker and creative writing teacher. I am also a clinical Hypno-Psychotherapist and Instructor of the Japanese martial art of Aikido. Each of these activities influences the other, and all my work is informed by a sense of spirituality that, over a number of years, has been much influenced by Buddhism, both Tibetan and Zen.
I try to harmonise all these approaches in my Courses, such as ‘Life Scripts’, which looks at Creative Writing and personal growth, and ‘Balancing Points’ which looks at Aikido and personal development. Increasingly I see all of this simply as different facets of .. ‘Energy’. I believe that all of the work has the potential to heal. As a Therapist I believe that people actually heal themselves, and my role is to facilitate their 're-empowerment' after illness or psychological distress. As a Writer it is my responsibility to use my creative ‘Voice’ to tell my truth about the world. As a Teacher of creative writing my role is to help others find their own distinctive creative Voice by sharing my experience of 30 years as a Practitioner. And, as an Aikido 'Sensei', my role is to help people feel their own sense of 'centre' together with a growing realisation that it is more powerful to 'blend' with what the world brings to us in a ‘mindful way’, rather than to struggle, and oppose it, head-to-head.
Paradoxically this is all wonderfully complex, and wonderfully simple, at the same time. ”
_____________________________________
I write screenplays and scripts for Film, Television, Theatre, Radio Drama, Radio Features, Documentary and Animation. I have also published Poetry. My work has been produced by companies such as BBC TV, BBC Radio, ITV, Channel 4, Disney, Cosgrove Hall Films, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Old Vic, Nottingham Playhouse and The Manchester Royal Exchange.
My childhood was largely spent ‘backstage’ in the worlds of Pantomime and Variety Theatre. My father is the comedian and actor, Stan Stennett M.B.E.
I studied History at Christ’s College, Cambridge (M.A 1976) from 1969-1972. My Director of Studies at Christ’s was Simon Schama.
For ten years I worked for the UK’s largest regional arts funding body, South West Arts. During that time I scripted my first play, which was produced in 1978 at The Half Moon Theatre, in London. On January 1st, 1984, when I was its Director, I left SWA in order to become a freelance writer.
I also teach Creative Writing / Screenwriting, to postgraduate level, at several Universities, Film Schools and Drama Schools, including Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff, The Northern Film School, Bournemouth Media College, R.A.D.A and The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. I designed and ran a two-year Higher Education Diploma in Creative Writing for Performance at The Department of Drama and Film at Bristol University.
I am also a Therapist, with qualifications in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy, and further qualifications in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
In addition to using Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, I use NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), M.B.C.T (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) and S.F.B.T. (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy) within the broad context of the Person-Centred Therapy approach, devised by Carl Rogers. Sometimes I utilise Creative Writing, Drama, Zen and Martial Arts concepts with my therapy. I also find that a combination of Cognitive and Solution-Focused work with Jungian ideas can be of particular value to therapy clients.
I am an Aikido Black Belt and a Registered British Aikido Board Instructor.
I am also a former International Athlete, British High-Jump champion, Welsh record holder and, for three years, a Cambridge University Athletics ‘Blue’.
I hold an Enhanced Criminal Records Board Clearance and Disclosure.
‘Enso’ painted by Shodo Harada Roshi
“The Warrior’s Way is a twofold Way of pen and sword.
He should have a taste for both ways”
Ieyasu Tokugawa (1543-1616)
------------------------
Press the link to download my WRITING c.v as a pdf
Click below to listen to one of my BBC Radio 4 Plays
Writing/Therapy Courses
Please Press below to download two files .....
LIFE SCRIPTS - What is it ?.pdf
------------------------
Please click on the link to download my
Hypno-Psychotherapy Leaflet
-----------------------
Other Writing Workshops
‘Samurai Scriptwriting’
‘Beginner’s Mind’
‘Radio Daze’
‘Staring At A Blank Sheet of Paper’
‘Six Poems In Search of a Playwright’
For more details
Please press below
... HERE ...
______________
Creative Writing & Therapy Courses
“ Breakfalls “ - Aikido and Therapy
“Jukebox of Memories” - Creative Writing, Song and Therapy.
_______________
Publisher
Amber Lane Press
To contact, please click ... HERE
_______________________________
“ Roger. You write DIRECT and good.
Hope I’m not talking a lot of balls.
You gave me a lot of pleasure.
If I do that to anyone, I feel pleased”
Letter from Peter Cook
_______________________________
Telephone : 07968 919255
_______________________________
...... Quotations ......
“ I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.
Yesterday is dead, Tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet .
I just have one day, Today, and I am going to be happy in it
Groucho Marx (1890-1977) Comedian.
“We can not enjoy life if we spend a lot of time worrying about what happened yesterday, and what will happen tomorrow.
We worry about tomorrow because we are afraid.
If we are afraid all the time, we can not appreciate
that we are alive, and can be happy now”
“ The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence.
When ‘mindfulness’ embraces those we love,
they will bloom like flowers.”
“Smile, breathe and go slowly”
Thich Nhat Hahn - Vietnamese Buddhist teacher
“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose
of the present moment.
A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment.
If one fully understands the present moment,
there will be nothing else to do, and to pursue.
Living, being true to the single purpose of the moment.”
‘Hagakure’ - The Book of The Samurai
“Before time is not the time ; nor is it time after the time”
Eric Cantona - Footballer and ‘Philosopher’
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
and you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
Fritz Perls (1893-1970) Founder of Gestalt therapy.
“Keep me away from the Wisdom which does not cry,
the Philosophy which does not laugh
and the Greatness which does not bow before children”
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) - Poet
In my early professional years I was asking the question :
“How can I treat, or cure or change this person ?”
Now I would phrase the question in this way :
“How can I provide a relationship which this person
may use for his own personal growth ?”
“The good life is a process, not a state of being.
It is a direction not a destination”
Carl Rogers (1902-1987) - Psychologist
“When you begin to touch your heart, or let your heart
be touched, you begin to discover that it is bottomless,
that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge,
vast, limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth
and gentleness is there, as well as how much space”
Pema Chodron - Buddhist Nun
“The neurotic and the artist - since both live out the
unconscious of the race - reveal what is going to emerge endemically in the society later on. The artist presents the broken image of man, but transcends it in the very act of transmuting it into art. It is his creative act which gives
meaning to the nihilism, alienation and other elements
of modern man’s condition...
Only a schizoid man could paint a schizoid world.”
Rollo May (1909-1994) - Existential Psychologist
“Master Tao-sheng believed that everything had Buddha-nature, which as heresy at the time and he was expelled from the Buddhist community. Tao-sheng was content to preach to the rocks ,who it is said nodded in agreement. Years later, Master Ungan remarked that the rocks had been nodding long before anyone had bothered to speak to them”
Zen story
“ Knock on the sky, and listen to the sound “
Zen saying.
“When you get extremely soft,
Then you become extremely hard and strong”
‘Tai Chi’ principle.
“Move like a beam of light: fly like lightning,
strike like thunder, whirl in circles around a stable centre.
Do not stare into the eyes of your opponent.
He may mesmerise you.
Do not fix your gaze on his sword.
He may intimidate you.
Do not focus on your opponent at all.
He may absorb your energy.
The essence of training is to bring your opponent
completely into your sphere.
Then you can stand where you like. “
Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) - Founder of Aikido.
“There is a gap or space between stimulus and response
and the key to both our growth and happiness
is how we use that space........
When we are no longer able to change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves”
Viktor Frankl ( 1905 - 1997)
“We are all in a post-hypnotic trance
induced in early infancy”
R.D.Laing (1926-1989) (Anti)-Psychiatrist
“You cannot solve a problem with the same
kind of thinking that created it.”
Albert Einstein ( 1897-1955 )
“Midway this way of life we’re bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone”
Dante (1265-1321)
“Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.
With the great wisdom you have gained,
With so much experience
You must surely have understood by then
What Ithacas mean.”
C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933)
“Tho’ much is taken, much abides ; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”
‘Ulysses’ - Lord Alfred Tennyson ( 1809-1892)
“And though you come out of each gruelling bout
All broken and battered and scarred
Just have one more try - it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping on living that’s hard.”
‘The Quitter’ - ‘Yukon’ poet, Robert Service ( 1874-1958)
“Once the realisation is accepted that even between
the closest human beings, infinite distances continue,
a wonderful living side-by-side can grow, if they succeed
in loving the distance between them which makes it
possible for each to see the other, whole against the sky.”
“Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who
are only waiting to see us once, beautiful and brave......
Perhaps everything terrible is, in its deepest being,
something helpless that wants help from us.”
“Spring has returned.
The Earth is like a child that knows poems.”
“ Don’t search for answers which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without evening noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
“We rarely hear the inward music,
but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless”
Sufi Poet, Rumi (1207-1273)
“Never give up.... Never slow down.
Never grow old...... Never ever die young”
James Taylor - “Never Die Young”
“It appals me to think how much deep change I have prevented or delayed in patients by my personal need to interpret. If only we can wait, the patient arrives at understanding creatively and with immense joy, and I now enjoy this joy more than I used to enjoy the sense of having been clever..... The principle is that it is the patient and only the patient who has the answers”
D.W.Winnicott (1896-1971) - Psychoanalyst
“The person is never the problem.
The problem is the problem”
Psychotherapy ‘truth’
“In the Beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
In the Expert's mind there are few.”
Zen Priest, Shunryu Suzuki ( 1904-71)
“In Psychotherapy, enthusiasm is the secret of success”
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures
of light, but by making the darkness conscious’”
“Only the wounded physician heals ...”
Carl Jung (1875-1961) - Psychoanalyst
______________
The Buddha was asked :
"Would it be true to say that the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion is a part of our practice? "
To which the Buddha replied :
"No. It would not be true to say that the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion is part of our practice.
It would be true to say that the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion is all of our practise
______________
“Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner”
“ To understand all, is to forgive all “
French Proverb
___________
“ If I keep a green bough in my heart,
The singing bird will come. ”
Chinese Proverb
______________
“Do not speak - unless it improves on silence”
Buddhist saying
______________
______________
“ contra mundum “
______________
