My own counselling journey

When I was looking for training I wanted a course that would really hold a journey of depth for myself, my peers and my clients while being rooted in the foundations of person-centred care.

I trained in counselling at an institute that held respect, connection and heart at its core. Our training allowed us to deepen into the work of transpersonal psychotherapy, dream work and eco psychotherapy out in the woods or in the Avalon marshes and introduced us to a wide variety of psychotherapeutic therapies on top of the grounding in person-centred models of care. The course brought in somatic and creative therapies alongside soul and spiritual models within the work. My training was deeply rooted in doing the inner work.

My own journey into the psychotherapeutic realms started much earlier than my counselling training. Many years ago I studied body-centred psychotherapy and before that natural medicine and both of these modalities have shaped the way I am in the world.

Intertwined with psychology and philosophy, I have also trained in rites of passage work, mindfulness, soulcraft, meditation and grief-tending. These aspects of my work sometimes come into the relational field as a therapeutic process.

I love the person-centred model, maintaining that which is for the good of the client as centre and I also see each of us as part of the whole and this wider collective consciousness forms part of the relational field created between us.

In the therapeutic relationship there is often a power dynamic that forms based on the hierarchy of therapy. I work towards an equal meeting of beings but acknowledge that this isn’t always familiar so the work is a co-created evolving journey. Along the journey I will explain what I am doing - perhaps working with a certain modality or bringing in dreamwork or artwork etc. - and you are able to consent to this work or not - the path is one of counselling and empowerment/agency.

My own roots are in Wales, England, India and Ancient Persia. I have grown up with the experience of a neurodiverse, multiheritage background and accompanying varying perspectives in life. Your experience will be different to mine so I will try not to make assumptions and have supervision for my own biases, transference or wonderings that may come up in any session.

I welcome folk of all kinds to the work and especially want to note that all ‘BIPOC’, queer, trans, differently-abled and or marginalised people are very welcome. Everyone will bring with them different stories and or experiences of past or present inner and outer work and this is all welcome. Different people will have experienced different cultural influences with societal, social, ancestral and intergenerational influences shaping their own experience. I may need to check in with you to see if I’ve understood properly something that you are saying, sensing or feeling, or I may need to educate myself in order to better understand. I also check in with myself and my own intersectionality and what is presenting at different times.

I recognise that many of the modalities within counselling and psychotherapy come from ‘BIPOC’ cultures and this is rarely noted. I also see that there are systems of oppression which means that we are not all coming with the same capacity, ability, access and support.

Dr Jennifer Mullan