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CONTENT C


Stay Calm andContent


CALM Interview by Ann Dewar


at Williams, British Forces wife, mother of two and relationship counsellor is the author of ‘Stay Calm


and Content No Matter What Life Throws At You’. Here we ask Cat of her experience, why she chose to write such a book and what we can all learn from it.


work problems, depression, bereavement, sibling rivalry etc, the stories are fictional but the positive changes which occur in them are based on real-life changes.


Why did you write the book?


I trained as a Relate Tell me about yourself


I originally trained as a Physiotherapist, qualifying in 2000 from King’s College London. I met my husband just before graduating, he was already in the Army. We married in 2004 and began our Service life together with a posting to Germany. I have two children aged 6 and 3. I love being a counsellor. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be trusted with people’s deepest concerns and problems, and to try to help them come through them as calmly and contentedly as possible.


What is the book about? The people around us who seem to stay calm and content no matter what life throws at them have attributes and strategies in common which we can all learn. This book shows you how. It is not a normal ‘self-help’ type book because you don’t need to have a problem to solve to read it, it is just about every-day life and its inevitable struggles.


Throughout the book there are short stories on many topics such as stress, anxiety, family relationships, parenting,


counsellor during our posting in Germany from 2005- 07, and since then I have worked during postings in Southern England, Scotland, and we are currently based in Canada. Through talking to hundreds of clients, as well as friends, acquaintances, and family, I realised that most of life’s struggles have a similar effect on us, even if they stem from different causes. I noticed that people who coped best all coped in a similar way, and I wanted to share this with everyone who wants to know how they do it!


How long did it take CONTENT CALM


you to write Stay Calm and Content? I began the book in September 2011, shortly after my husband had left for a 9 month tour in Afghanistan. I was in an Army quarter in Inverness, with my two children, and I mainly wrote the book on my smart phone. I would have an idea driving or walking along, or in bed at night, or in the shower, and I would grab my phone and note it down. Then every couple of weeks I would find a day when the children were at school and nursery, and I would put together a chapter or two. It took me a year in total to write and publish it. I decided to self-publish the book via Authorhouse UK because self-publishing is a quick and relatively inexpensive process, but this means I am now self-marketing the


www.raf-ff.org.uk Envoy Spring 2013


You are giving 50% of your profits from the book to charity, why is that? I wrote the book hoping that it would be useful to people, and an additional way that I can help as many people as possible is by supporting charities who offer support and counselling to children or adults recovering from traumatic or difficult circumstances. I am a forces wife so I would like some of the charities to be ones which support military families, such as following bereavement.


For more information go to: www.staycalmandcontent.com


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book, so I am very grateful for people who spread the word about it.


LIFESTYLE


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