It’s my favourite time in my blog schedule when I shine a light on my incredible clients by way of my The Proust Questionnaire feature. Today we have fabulous Cait Wotherspoon. Cait is a grief therapist and is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with to tell their story. It’s a phenomenal story – see for yourself!
The Proust Questionnaire by Cait Wotherspoon
What’s your idea of perfect happiness?
Living on a property again, surrounded by trees, dams, lots of nature and my children and their families. I grew up on property in a huge family with my nanna and granddad living up the hill with a well-worn path between our two houses. When we got in trouble from Mum, we’d go stomping up that hill to tell Nanna about how unfairly we’d been treated and the injustice of it all. I don’t remember hearing her say a bad word about Mum. She always said, “Come inside and I’ll make a cup of tea” She just sat and listened to our tales of woe and made it all better again.
Perfect happiness is also having the most amazing friends who support me. Friends who really get me, who drop me a line when I’m feeling down or going through tough times, friends who I meet up for coffee with and talk for hours and wonder where the time went, friends who can sit with me in comfortable silence.
I’d love to own a big property again and a house that has a wraparound verandah that’s surrounded by nature, a chase lounge and a couple of comfy chairs too. Like at Granny’s place. Family and friends are everything to me.
What is your greatest extravagance?
In 2022 it was getting the best stylist and photographer in the world. I booked them at the beginning of the year, saved all year and did it at the end of the year. It was the most uplifting, amazing experience I’ve had in a long time. Nicole Vine is my personal stylist and Fi Mims is my photographer. My husband and I drove to Carnegie, Victoria from Sydney. We headed off at 5am stopping at little towns with sweet cafes along the way and met so many friendly. We had an exciting adventure, we weren’t in any hurry at all. Long conversations and lots of laughter was had along the way. We arrived at our unit which was beautifully decked out, quite relaxing and close to amazing restaurants. My morning with Nicole was wonderful, I felt like a celebrity except I had to pay for everything, unlike a celebrity 😉. Photoshoot day came around, celebrity filled day again. Hair, makeup, action and heaps of fun. I was lucky enough to have my amazing Melbourne friends show up to the shoot, which made it so much more fun. I look back on these days with immense joy and still rave on to anyone who’ll listen about how awesome it was.
This is one of my greatest extravagances and one of my greatest joys.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Wow, that’s an amazing, awesome, interesting question.
For many, many years I have used wow! as an expression of great delight. I first realised that I used it a lot was when the first words out of any baby’s mouth who I had contact with would exclaim, “Wow!” when they were delighted. My cousin and I used to laugh about it, especially with her youngest daughter. “It’s just an Aunty Caity thing,” we’d say laughing.
When I exclaim, “That’s interesting or you’re awesome”, I think to myself, “I’ll have to think of more interesting words to say but I never do. While I was doing a course, years ago, a woman asked me,” Why do you say, “That’s interesting’ so much?” I hadn’t thought about it before that but I realise it’s so I can pause and think on it some more. I’m really pleased she asked that question.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
That’s a deep question. I’ve lived a long life and consider there to be so many. I think the greatest and most difficult was being a mum to the most beautiful girls ever. When I say beautiful, I mean both inside and out. They’re now mums themselves navigating a very different world to what they grew up in.
I cherish being a mum and now a grandma. Being a mum is the most underrated job in the universe. I love watching our girls mother their children, often having a little chuckle because they used to do what their own children are doing now. I know they say to themselves, “Augh, Mum used to say that.”
What is your most treasured possession and why?
My most treasured possession is photos of our babies when they were born. Some lived and some died. They’re precious memories of long hard labors, bleeding internally and having amazing midwives be my advocate so I could have the best births ever. There’s so much emotion wrapped up in these photos. I could talk for days and share so many difficult, beautiful, funny but always memorable stories.
What is your most marked characteristic?
I texted my husband asking this question about me. He replied optimism and I thanked him. I could see that in me because I’ll always find a way through and get things done. I surround myself with supportive people and live an awesome life because of this. Then seconds later more texts from him. “You could also add persistence,” I sent him an emoji of hugs and kisses. He followed up with,” You would also add compassion, empathy, and tenacity. Let’s not forget about caring.” This brought tears of joy to my eyes. I was overwhelmed. I’ve concluded that there isn’t one marked characteristic. These suggestions really hit home for me. If I hadn’t asked, I would have written my friendly smile because everyone comments on that.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the Terminator films. She was a regular woman, doing mum things and trying to raise her son the best she could. Later, she trained like a demon and became focused on saving the human race. Sarah also trained John to be a soldier and save the world. I don’t remember at what stage Sarah trained but I had her photo on the wall of my home gym. This photo motivated to train every day, 5am no excuses. I loved her tenacity, focus and passion for life and survival.
Who are your heroes in real life?
There are so many heroes in my life but the two stable ones from childhood are my Nanna and Granny. They’re my heroes because they lived through hard times and came through with it all. There were world things that happened like the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, two world wars where they saw half the me disappear from their towns.
My Nanna had two sons, the eldest was killed on the way home from school, he was only 12 years old. Their home burned down with all their worldly possessions. Then later in life Nanna was our family’s saviour. We’d have long discussions about life over a cup of tea and when I was sick, she’d take care of me and make special egg-nog.
My Granny was my protector too. I loved staying with her. Granny owned the corner shop, she worked six and half days a week. On Sunday she’d take me for a drive and we’d get lost every single time. I’m sure she knew where we were because we always found our way back home. This is where I learned that getting lost is safe, we’ll always find our way back home. Consequently, my husband hated this part of me but he’s learned to love it over the years because I’ll always get lost even with a map. We really enjoy our adventures now.
What is your motto?
My personal motto is “I’ll give it a go? This started when I started F45 with
Jeremy and Jordon. Previously I’d go to gym classes and go my hardest. I’ve always trained to keep strong but these F45 trainers changed my life. They could see that I was capable of going my hardest and as soon as they saw my technique was good one of them would say,” You can lift heavier than that.” I’d question, “Really?” (it was usually Jeremy) he’d have a wry grin and say, “Yeah, you can.” I’d reply, “Okay, I’ll give it a go”. Low and behold I could do it and I was quite comfortable going up in weight when he/they suggested it. We’d always have that little back and forth which became a bit of a pattern between us. So much fun.
My business motto is Unravelling grief to rediscover joy so you can live your life alongside grief. I want everyone to process their grief, be comfortable sharing stories of their loved one and finding the path back to living life. My passion is to have everyone in the world understand that death followed by grief is a natural part of the life cycle and everyone be comfortable sitting with their grieving friend or family member.
What is your story? AKA Name, bio and big details including best place to find you.
My name is Cait Wotherspoon, of Cait Wotherspoon Counselling and Psychotherapy. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. I love being creative and helping people share their stories, process their grief and live life with their way of grieving.
I love shining the spotlight on some of my clients and colleagues. If you’d like to know more about my work or would like the full 35 questions from the Questionnaire, please shoot me an email or give me a buzz, and I’ll respond in a jiffy.