The Starlings community: how we hold this space
Starlings works because it's a place where you don't have to explain yourself. These guidelines exist to keep it that way.
What's shared here stays here. Please don't repeat, screenshot or forward anything from this group. That includes partners, friends and other therapists. If something someone shares is useful to you, take the insight and leave the story behind.
Use as much or as little as you need. Some weeks you'll post. Some weeks you'll read. Some weeks you'll mute the group entirely. All of that is welcome and nobody is keeping score.
Share from your own experience. This is a space for reflection rather than advice. "Here's what I noticed in myself" tends to land better than "here's what you should do." If you're unsure, saying nothing and simply acknowledging someone is often enough.
Give people a heads-up before difficult material. If you're going to write about something heavy, a short line at the top: "this one's about a hospital visit", lets people choose their moment.
Nobody is on call. This is a peer community, not a crisis service. Replies may take hours or days, and sometimes they won't come at all. That isn't rejection. If you need a response, please don't wait on the group.
If you're in crisis, please reach for proper support. Contact your GP, your own therapist, or the Samaritans on 116 123 (free, 24 hours). In an emergency, call 999. Amelia offers single therapy sessions separately, subject to availability, at her current session rate, reply to any email to ask.
This group isn't therapy. It sits alongside the work, not instead of it. Amelia contributes here as part of the community rather than as your therapist, and posts in this group aren't a route to clinical support.
Keep it a Beyond The Blueprint space. No selling, no promoting your own services or programmes, no recruiting for other groups. If you've found something genuinely useful: a book, a practice, a piece of writing, that's different and welcome.
Disagreement is fine. Contempt isn't. People here have very different relationships with their boarding experience, their families and their faith in this work. You won't recognise yourself in everything you read. Let that sit.
How the group is held. Our Community Manager will be looking after this space day to day and will step in if a conversation needs steadying. If something here concerns you, or you'd rather raise it privately, message them or email from Amelia.
Leaving. You can leave the WattsApp group at any time, without explanation, and rejoin later if you want to. Leaving the WhatsApp group doesn't cancel your membership, and cancelling your membership doesn't remove you automatically: let us know either way by emailing [email protected]
