About this item
As the world feels ever more dangerous and unreliable, there is something soothing and grounding about basic human activities such as baking. We all feel alienated, and loneliness is on the rise; baking our own bread is one way of improving our physical and mental health, reconnecting us with real things, and providing us with helpful reminders of existential realities. Pauline Beaumont is no stranger to the harsh realities of the modern world. As a therapist, she is constantly faced with the damaging impact of perfectionism on mental health. Her antidote? Baking bread, where plenty of things can (and do) go wrong. In Bread Therapy, she shares the wisdom she's gleaned from practicing self-acceptance through baking. Pauline's reflections on topics like creativity, relationships, and authenticity are accompanied by thoughtfully written bread recipes that will put these lessons into practice.
About the Author
Pauline lives in a rural area near the border between England and Scotland. She relishes the opportunity she has to spend time in nature, often walking Cedric, the family's unruly Patterdale Terrier. Big families have figured largely in her life. She is the oldest of six siblings and has six, now grown up, children herself. Favourite things are Iris Murdoch novels, clothes designed by Margaret Howell, music by Orlando Gibbons and her son's band (demob happy) , baking bread and splashing out on flowers, books and stationery.After studying Psychology and Philosophy at university, she began a 20-year career in the arts. The double-edged sword of redundancy gave her the opportunity to reconsider what she wanted to do next and a return to higher education led to her working as a Psychological Therapist, first in the NHS and then after a significant gap, back at the university she had left so many years before.During much of this time while she was bringing up her family and working, cooking and baking and in particular, baking bread, became increasingly important to her. Pauline found the pattern of bread-making shaped her weeks and days and provided a grounding and soothing activity that was an antidote to the inevitable stresses of her life. While devoted to the importance of therapy as a route to healing, she increasingly recognised that there were many activities that were highly therapeutic for us all, whether we have mental health problems or not, that are not therapy and that are easily accessible. From walking in the woods to wild swimming to gardening to playing music to knitting to baking, there are things we can do, that can reap huge rewards for our wellbeing. At the top of Pauline's list was bread-making and the idea slowly formed of writing a book that combined these two passions of therapeutic work and baking bread: her first book Bread Therapy: The Mindful Art of baking bread is the result.
