By Charlotte Fox Weber
Cate Sevilla is fiercely bright and bold. She’s also immensely kind, and her warmth comes through with an immediacy that feels electric. She spoke with EL about work life, writing her beautiful book, motherhood, loss, and the adventures of therapy. We heard about some misadventures too. We delighted in her openness, her unguarded trust in us, and her enthusiasm about psychotherapy and psychotherapists. She’s entertaining as well as serious. Her book, How to Work Without Losing Your Mind, is a reassuring exploration of the ways work messes with our emotions. In discussing the ideas behind her book, Cate talked about shame, fantasy, the psychological expectations of the workplace. We bring family dynamics into work situations and it’s astonishing to step back and realise the implicit hopes we’ve carried around.
Cate has rich insights about vulnerability and context, how crying in therapy feels better than crying nonstop in a work meeting. She talked about the delicacy of alerting colleagues to major personal issues without oversharing. We often mistakenly assume line managers will be sensitive to struggles they don’t understand. Cate conveyed emotional health we wish all bosses had worldwide. A fantasy, we know. We could have talked with her all day, and we pretty much did. After our meeting in the library of the Inhabit Hotel (with a screen for those joining remotely) we had lunch in the charming and delicious Yeotown Kitchen afterwards.
What a joy to have Cate Sevilla speak with EL.
