Happy Place: Annabel Rivkin is talking about talking therapy

Talking therapy is excellent. Self-care is crucial. Self-love is essential. We do what we do in order to survive. Life is beautiful but living can be heavy so… Happiness? How — we wonder as we meditate, medicate, exercise, journal, drink, dance, shop, eat — do we find a way to be happy? Is happiness a realistic goal or just another stick we use to beat ourselves with because we can’t quite hear our heart’s desire. We can’t quite be who we truly are. Perhaps we should forget happiness for a moment and aim for true connection.

Estelle Bingham reaches the parts that others cannot reach. A heart whisperer and energetic healer, she is part wise woman, part cosmic force. The sheer power of her alchemy is not to be underestimated, if you are prepared to suspend some disbelief and activate some faith. This is a new way to tread an ancient path. Manifestation is deeply fashionable, but this is where manifestation meets love and divine energy. Don’t laugh until you’ve tried it.

Bingham now runs Love Retreat: a three-day weekend somewhere celestial in Somerset. I will tell you very little about what happens there because part of the wonder lies in the release from language and performative verbal communication. But I was seen and I was honoured and I am changed. It is a sacred weekend — speaking as a former cynic. If you are stuck. If you simply do not know how to free yourself from the ties that bind you, talk to Bingham. It’s not magic.

But it might be.