Freedom, Fear, and the Child Beneath the Politics

When we look at political conflict, it is easy to stay focused on policies, parties, and headlines. Yet beneath these surface struggles live much older stories about fear, belonging, and the need to feel safe. Drawing on the work of Erich Fromm and on what we now know about early development and trauma, this essay explores how the roots of today’s political behavior can be traced back to childhood experiences of attachment, shame, and identity. It offers a way of seeing our current moment not only as a political crisis, but as a human one that asks for deeper understanding and more relational forms of healing.

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2026, Poetry, Mental & Emotional Health Leigh William 2026, Poetry, Mental & Emotional Health Leigh William

grIef

g.r.I.e.f. is an unflinching exploration of loss, memory, and reckoning. Written in the quiet hours of remembrance, it captures the raw, conflicting emotions of loving someone who caused deep pain. Through fragmented thought and midnight reflection, the poem unfolds as both an act of mourning and a declaration of self-healing - a daughter’s struggle to find meaning, forgiveness, and peace in the shadow of her father’s death.

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Leigh William Leigh William

WAVE: Finding Healing in the Rhythm of Water

After years of research and reflection, much of it spent on a sailboat, I’m thrilled to share my Integrative Therapy model, WAVE: Water-based Attunement for Vitality and Emotion. Rooted in the movement and sound of water, WAVE explores how we can use nature’s rhythms to foster safety, balance, and connection within the human nervous system. 

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Trauma & Healing, Cancer, 2025 Leigh William Trauma & Healing, Cancer, 2025 Leigh William

WAVE: Returning Home

“It takes as long as it takes. Be gentle on yourself.”

These are the words I’ve lived by over the past decade — a quiet mantra that carried me through illness, healing, and the slow return to the work I love. What follows is the story of how I found my way back — to my body, my calling, and the rhythm that became WAVE.

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Leigh William Leigh William

Arrival

Arrival is both a memoir and a meditation — a story of crossing oceans and coming home to oneself. With the insight of a psychologist and the heart of a poet, Leigh William invites readers to rediscover courage as a living practice: the quiet decision to begin again.

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Leigh William Leigh William

When the Moon and the Body Lose Touch

I once lived in Würzburg, where the river bends beneath the moon and the nights still feel ancient. A new study from that same city reveals that women’s menstrual cycles once moved in rhythm with the moon — a connection now fading under the constant glow of modern light. As a sailor, a birth worker, and a researcher of maternal mood, I see that loss everywhere: in our sleep, our stress, our longing to feel steady again. This is a reflection on what happens when the body and the moon fall out of step — and how we might find our rhythm once more.

Unsplash Image by @bnwphotoexercise

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Leigh William Leigh William

The Machine That Held Her

The Obsolescence Protocol is part of an upcoming collection of books that draw from my work in Integrative Therapy and my three decades of advocacy for women and children in transition. These stories explore emotional survival in complex systems, blending psychological insight with speculative fiction. At the core of each book is a human truth—grief, resilience, memory, identity—and the quiet, often unseen choices we make in moments of uncertainty. These are not clinical case studies wrapped in narrative. They are lived questions, shaped by experience and told through fiction that doesn’t look away.

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