Musician and actor Johnny Flynn and James O鈥橞rien, the broadcaster and author, spoke about their experiences of therapy on national radio.

Johnny, has appeared in stage and screen productions, including recently Emma, Stardust and The Dig, and has released a number of studio albums and written musical scores for films, TV and theatre while James is a presenter for talk station LBC, a former Newsnight presenter and a best-selling author.

They were guests on when they talked about counselling, particularly in light of their experiences of attending boarding school from a young age.

Johnny said: 鈥淚鈥檝e started examining these things through therapy.

鈥淚 was away from home from eight until 18. While it gave me so much in terms of a musical discipline and understanding, it鈥檚 also inseparable from a kind of pain of being away from home, away from my sister, who went to local schools.

鈥淢y son is 10, my daughters are five and about to turn three and it鈥檚 really burning in relevance now. What do I want for them? And the answer is they鈥檙e not leaving my arms!鈥�

Johnny Flynn spoke about his experiences of therapy on national BBC Radio

Johnny Flynn spoke about his experiences of therapy on national BBC Radio

Johnny said he attended therapy for a number of reasons.

鈥淭he stuff with school and hitting my 30s, realising there were these niggles or people I haven鈥檛 forgiven,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat was where I realised there are some things I needed to unlock or workout, and especially as my kids hit that age that I was when I went off to school, that was when it became really interesting to think about it.鈥�

James said his wife suggested he go to therapy after one of the people he 鈥渓oved most in the world became catastrophically ill鈥�.

鈥淚 went along in a state of utter cynicism and scepticism because I thought I was me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 thought what turned out to be armour was my skin.

鈥淚t鈥檚 as if you live your entire life in a house, then you discover, in my case at the age of 45, that you have had this enormous garden all along and you didn鈥檛 even know where the door was or the key or the path to get into this garden.

鈥淓very single aspect of my life has been enormously enhanced.鈥�

James O'Brien says every aspect of his life "has been enormously enhanced" by therapy.

James O'Brien says every aspect of his life "has been enormously enhanced" by therapy.

James said he also discussed his experience of boarding school and corporal punishment with his therapist.

鈥淭his epic effort you put into persuading yourself that not only has it not done you any harm, but also that it鈥檚 good for you,鈥� he said,

鈥淲hen I began to argue for a living on telly and radio, I would argue that corporal punishment was good for children, with a straight face. That goes right back to being 10 years old.

鈥淭he argument that it never did me any harm was an intrinsic part of who I was 鈥� I鈥檇 spent 35 years being hurt and denying it.

鈥淚 thought it was normal. I thought that everybody woke up with a bolus of anxiety and tension in their stomach and lived their life according to epic highs and crashing lows,鈥� he added.

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