The end of my first full day at the Erickson Foundation Brief Therapy Conference in San Diego. Has it really only been a day? I have seen so much and met so many people… Amazing.

So today I did workshops with some lovely people such as Jeffrey Zeig, who studied with Erickson himself; and listened to talks by inspiring people such as Lenore Terr, a child psychiatrist in San Francisco. It seems that I am the only delegate at the conference from England – as far as I know, anyway.

And what I have noticed above all since arriving here in California is how incredibly friendly everyone is.

I find that people in Yorkshire, where I now live, are generally rather warm and friendly… but we do still tend to have a little of that English reserve. Here, within five minutes of stepping out of my hotel room this morning, three people i did not know had greeted me and enquired after my well-being. ‘Hi, How are ya?’ seems to be the expression.

This evening I popped across the road to the local mall and in every shop that I entered, someone again asked me ‘Hi! How are ya?’ and it didn’t seem to mean ‘What do you want to buy?’ but, in fact, to be a genuine and caring concern – accompanied by large beaming smile -  for my experience as someone looking round the store.

Californians seem incredibly gifted at the hypnotic art of building rapport. You know, it is very heart-warming to find yourself in a different place, far from home, and have people everywhere making eye contact, smiling and asking you how you are. I like it.