Back in 2018 I chose a different path in life. After following a long and winding path that saw me appear to have “done well in life”, I was unhappy, burned out, and found with it that significant aspects of my life had been left behind, even lost, and leaving myself and others wondering what had happened and who I was.
I was lucky to have the resources and time to get back to life. To a life that would be worth living, to a life where I wouldn’t be caught up in the spirals of my life traps, and to a life where I could choose my happiness levels rather than be reactive to circumstances and others.
Through psychotherapy and counselling, and being introduced to Mindfulness and in particular Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) I began to feel more positive and more in control of how I felt day to day. It took work and it took the help of others, and I’ve never looked back.
In 2019 I took a Post Graduate Certificate in Interpersonal Counselling focused on Person-Centred (Rogerian) principles. I really enjoyed that and learned a lot but felt something was missing. I was learning lots of useful skills but wasn’t really getting under the skin of how we humans work in our life domains and with other humans. We’re a social animal and don’t live our lives in isolation. We’re deeply influenced in the moment by the places we have to spend our days and the people we keep company with and have to live amongst. We have strong and powerful emotions, both good and bad, that emerge from all of this. I wanted to know how I could stop these negative emotions taking charge of me and I how I could react and behave the way I wanted rather than the way the Emotions seemed to want me to.
In 2020, I took a few courses with the Human Givens College on how to make Psychotherapy and Counselling more effective. These courses immediately “spoke to me” because they were structured in a way that started to answer my questions of what was missing in my previous training. I pursued with the HG training courses taking 16 individual courses (“Part 1”) covering their approach & methods and how they apply to treating Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Stress, Mental Illness such as Psychosis and Schizophrenia, Anger, Self-Harm, Trauma, Phobias, Obsessive Thinking, and Addictions.
In 2023 I took the Part 2 course and Diploma Exams. These brought together all the Part 1 courses and wrapped a safe and ethical practice and process around this to make sure we could deliver to the standards of The Human Givens Institute. HGI is accredited by the United Kingdom Professional Standards Authority, who oversee the regulation and registration of healthcare professionals. HGI is one of a small handful of psychotherapy and counselling associations, such as the BACP, to have accreditation. Both HGI and BACP signatories to the SCoPEd Framework that agrees the minimum training requirements and required ethical conduct of practitioners.
Having passed the Part 2 Diploma with Distinction, I am now working towards full accreditation with HGI. This requires me to work with around 10 to 15 unique clients over 100 to 150 hours under the supervision of a senior accredited supervisor. Once this is completed I can then take the Part 3 assessments involving observed client sessions, feedback sessions, and panel interviews. I’m working towards this through the first half of 2024 in the capacity of HG Psychotherapist Trainee.
My page on this site sets out more information on this process and what it means for my clients. So far I have worked with clients on issues such as Anxiety, Stress, dealing with the psychological effects of fertility treatment, coping with the effects of Dyspraxia in a professional workplace, coping with being the partner of a substance addict, Anger issues, and resolving chronic sleep problems.
I have a strong professional interest in neuroscience research and the implications for physical and mental health, and in the practice of helping others live their best life in balance and happiness.
