Life and styleMy dominatrix life coach isn’t afraid to hurt my feelings – she’s brutally honest and has no time for my excuses I love therapy, but I didn’t love my therapist. She was young, like me, and new – the best I could find with my cheap insurance. I was her first real client, she was thrilled, I was broke and depressed. Over the course of our six months together, we often sat through extended periods of silence, each of us desperately searching for something to say.

Cinematic eye … Susan Moncur per Versace, Milano 1975. Photograph: Gian Paolo Barbieri- Courtesy of Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri/29 Arts in Progress GalleryCinematic eye … Susan Moncur per Versace, Milano 1975. Photograph: Gian Paolo Barbieri- Courtesy of Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri/29 Arts in Progress GalleryMy best shotArt and design‘I was inspired by a scene from The Postman Always Rings Twice that is explained only by sound – the clatter of keys falling to the ground, the noise of a lipstick rolling’

BIRDS AND THE BEESCan animals be right-handed or left-handed? Gali, Givatayim Israel Certainly pet cats and dogs can be right or left pawed. In my experience there are equal quantities of right and left pawed cats and dogs, depending which was the first paw the animal used after birth. But others have claimed a preponderance of left pawed cats. I don't think any serious scientific study has ever been done.

‘This new “incompetence” shook my sense of identity’: Lorraine Candy. Photograph: Kate Peters/The Observer‘This new “incompetence” shook my sense of identity’: Lorraine Candy. Photograph: Kate Peters/The ObserverSelf and wellbeingMenopauseI coped with kids and a busy career, so why was I suddenly overwhelmed?Have you found out about your windows of tolerance yet: those moments when you feel fully capable of handling any stress life throws at you? Our tolerance shrinks and expands to suit our needs, but these “windows of tolerance” are a funny thing for women, as I have just discovered, because they unexpectedly disappear when we hit midlife.

10 of the bestSoulPsychedelic soul: 10 of the bestFrom the joyful exultations of Sly Stone to the fire and brimstone of Curtis Mayfield, we look at 10 classics from when soul musicians started dropping acid 1 The Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today“Psychedelic soul” should more accurately be called black psychedelia, because, under the influence of Jimi Hendrix, it was sometimes more rock than soul. Formerly a folk group who sang back-up for Dylan, the Chambers Brothers rebuilt themselves in 1967, hooking up with Moby Grape producer David Rubinson and yowling “My soul’s been psychedelicised!