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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Paula Cocozza

A new start after 60: ‘I became a psychotherapist at 69 and found my calling’

‘I like that notion, that one is actually able to give back as a result of a long life’ … Bryony Harris in Fredrikstad, Norway.
‘I like that notion, that one is actually able to give back as a result of a long life’ … Bryony Harris in Fredrikstad, Norway. Photograph: Elin Hoyland/The Guardian

At 65, Bryony Harris withdrew her pension in a lump sum and enrolled on a psychotherapy course. “I like that I used my pension to train for a new career,” she says. Now, at 74, she has a thriving psychotherapy practice in Fredrikstad, Norway. “I just knew it was the right time, and I felt equipped to do it. It was the very best thing I ever did for myself.”

The four-year course was on the coast of Denmark, where for a week a month Harris was “among sand dunes with this amazing empty wild beach right outside”. To get there, Harris drove for five hours through southern Norway. “It always felt like coming home,” she says. “I was a sponge, soaking up this stuff.”

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