Peter Close, Lived Experience Counselling

Peter Close

Although it took many years of sobriety to understand, my journey of self discovery began 25+ years ago when I fell into the grip of addiction as a 19 year old university student. I was struggling with anxiety and depression, feeling an extreme social awkwardness and having difficulty not just making friends, but having what should have been simple conversations with peers.

Drugs and alcohol became tools to ease the social pressure and create a common interest and bond between myself and those I was surrounded by. There was a sense of peace and ease that came with a few drinks replacing the anxiety and worry of a few minutes before. At the same time, drinking felt to release me from my harsh self-criticisms, and the fear that those around me would be secretly as ruthless in their judgement if they got to know the 'real me'.

Those 'tools' enabled me to present a false image of myself to those around me; an idea of who I thought they would like. As it went, that became an extremely stressful and anxiety provoking way of life in itself...navigating a twisted path of relationships between acquaintances, true friends and family, marked and damaged by dishonest and selfish behaviors.

In 2004, unable to stop drinking, I found my way to Alcoholics Anonymous in Vancouver Canada. It was there that I caught my first glimpse of the Mind, Body, Spirit Connection as it was explained to me that drinking was a symptom of my true, underlying problem....the anxiety and depression from years earlier. Gradually my small, random collection of books on Buddhism acquired through the haze of alcoholism began to make sense.

Since 2004, I have explored and learned about several Mind/Body/Spirit practices including Vipassana, Holotropic Breathwork, Neuroenergetic Kinesiology and Sound Healing.

Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation which is taught over a ten-day silent meditation course of which I have done 3. My study of kinesiology fed my interest of people as energetic-spiritual beings. It lead me to Sound Healing and my acquiring an antique set of Tibetan Singing Bowls. In 2011, it was my soon-to-be wife who introduced me to Holotropic Breathwork. Lynda was

already training to become a Certified Holotropic Breathwork Facilitator when we began attending weekend workshops together. I joined her in the training on a trip to California in 2013 and have attended modules both there and in Tasmania eventually holding several workshops each year together in Brisbane. As a powerful healing and spiritual modality, Holotropic Breathwork has given me gifts which often feel beyond articulation in print. It was an honor to work with Lynda in making it available to others on a healing journey.

In 2021, Lynda embarked on a Medicine Journey that

in, layperson terms, can only be described as a 'bad trip'. You can read about Lynda's story here. There is no training that prepares any man or woman to see their Loved One fall into existential crises accompanied by panic attacks, reactivations and severe anxiety and depression. It is a journey that can leave everyone feeling lonely, lost and hopeless. As she clawed her way back to reclaim her Life and Soul, there have been lessons that could only have been learnt by by experience. While I would not wish that anyone had to live through Lynda's experience, I trust that I might one day be able to put my lessons to valuable use.