Rachel Bridgeford

Life so far has been a whole big barrel of up's and down's for me. With every twist and turn it has taken there is more that I learn and more that I want to say and share. I've always written to express myself. When I was a little girl I used to bully my younger brother into sitting and illustrating the endless short stories I wrote about dragons and fairies and magic castles in the sky. I won second prize in my school story writing contest at 9. Thereafter I began to lose my way in the labyrinth of adolescence and wound up on a path leading vaguely in the direction of mental healthcare. I am now a trained and experienced counsellor. However, in the lead up to my arrival this point I found myself in a couple of project management jobs within which, funnily enough, writing played a role. The first was as a development officer for a brand new, national level project within which I was responsible for the project promotion and development for Northamptonshire including creation of promotional material and drafting of press releases. My second job was with a Military Publications Company for whom my role was to oversee the production of several military regimental journals, ensuring each was completed by the required deadline. However the companty also produced it's own in-house magazine for the forces for which I was required to produce articles. These days I'm a single mum. My children are still small and having spent a large amount of time wracking my brains about how to make an income whilst still meeting their needs, finally, DD Expressions and Soul Attention Counselling Service were born. I am also currently writing my first novel; a process which I am finding to be fulfilling in a great number of ways. I'd like to end this bio with two quotes that I particularly like and I feel sum up my core philosophies on life nicely:

'A bird sitting on a branch is never afraid of the branch breaking because her faith is not in the strength of the branch but in her own wings. Always believe in yourself';

'We avoid risks in life so that we may make it safely to death'

:)