The sculptor Barbara Hepworth wrote “In sculpture there must be a complete realisation of the structure and quality of the wood or stone which is being carved. But I do not think that this alone supplies the life and vitality of sculpture. I believe that the understanding of the material and the meaning of the form being carved must be in perfect equilibrium.”

I like Hepworth’s work. Her sculpture garden in St Ives is top of my list of places to visit. Each time I visit I’m struck by the combination of strength and fragility in her work. The piece above epitomises this balance. For me it echoes the Cornish coastline. On the one hand it seems timeless. Those granite cliffs have been there since Adam was young. Yet look over the edge of these same cliffs and one sees the sea breaking on the rocks, many of which are from cliff falls. Falls from the same eternal cliffs!

Hepworth understood this. Her sculptures manage to flow. To be an organic whole, successfully combining diverse elements. I would not have seen how well stone and wire fit together to tell a story that goes beyond their basic components. Clearly she saw that, as she says, “the understanding of the material and the meaning of the form being carved must be in perfect equilibrium”.

Here is where her work can become a metaphor can counselling and psychotherapy. When I was able to return to working face to face with my patients after the Covid 19 lockdown, I briefly suggested that my patients come wearing a mask. It was a very short lived idea! One really cannot conduct a therapy session if both of us are wearing masks. (One of my patients put it eloquently. “I’ve spent all my life wearing masks. I’m not going to wear one in therapy!”)

Much of the work of therapy is in helping my patients integrate. To come to an understanding of the properties of the materials that make up the person in front of me and the uses to which these materials are being put. No matter how long I spent in therapy, I was never going to emerge as an Engineer. What my own therapy did for me was to allow me to find a form that fitted my function. It was not always an easy process. With 50 years of life to explore, I had acquired my fair share of emotional barnacles which needed scraping off. A painful process at times. But also times of fun and laughter times of fun and laughter. (I’m quite satisfied with the end result. As is my wife!)

There is a design maxim that “form follows function”. Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures epitomise this idea. Bringing together diverse elements to create something that goes beyond the raw materials. A kind of gestalt.

I often imagine putting up various phrases and aphorisms on the walls of my counselling room. Perhaps “form follows function” should be one of them.