I work from the mature basis of a well-lived, varied life of integrated experience and learned, and intuitive, wisdom. A deeply held philosophical, ecological and political outlook influences my own understanding of life and therapy.
Among the many things that are important to me is an ongoing awareness of how the living in our social, political and economic structures and the living with our shared global issues, shapes and affects us all in many different ways.
To work holistically, by definition, is to address the physical and psychological, and the spiritual and socio-environmental aspects of our lives. This is hardly ‘New Age’ thinking. T. S. Elliot was writing, in 1934…
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the Wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the Knowledge we have lost in information?
The emptiness and loss of connection experienced in depression, for example, can’t be seen in just personal terms although that may be a more comfortable, societal viewpoint.
We do need broader, and more thoughtful, ways of looking at our own personal areas of distress. No matter how hard we may try to ignore or deny it, everything we know from human ecology and quantum mechanics informs us that we, and all other forms of life and intelligence that share this planet, are interconnected and indivisible.
We all respond to, and are affected by, the world that we simultaneously
live in and create. We are affected in so many subtle, and not
so subtle, ways. Often it can be a challenge to find a balance
between our material life, and a spiritual awareness; our connectedness
to others and the living earth, while we simultaneously cope with our everyday,
day-to-day living.
These ideas, for example, suggest to me that there are many different ways, and levels of understanding, around how we experience and respond to our living and our lives.
And there is also, always, more than one proscribed way of understanding
the issue or problem and working with it; depending on the life, the wisdom
and self-knowledge, and the lived-experience of each individual person.
Qualifications and Training
B.Couns. & Human Change (Psychotherapy)
Jansen Newman Institute: www.jni.nsw.edu.au
Qualifications involved completed training in:
- Life Coaching
- Hypnotherapy and Creative Visualisation
- Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
Training included:
- Supervised internship (two years) in the Institute’s general Clinic.
- Intern work and experience in Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation.
- Development and writing of: Transition Curriculum for Residential Group Work—for a NSW AODB, residential rehabilitation program (2003).
Training & Registration under the Federal Government
Carers Counselling Program
Carers NSW. Inc: www.carersnsw.asn.au
Broad-based personal experience and first-hand understanding of both the full, and part-time, Carer role informs this work. I’m delighted to be involved in a program that offers subsidised counselling sessions to Carers.
Professional membership
CMCAPA. www.capa.asn.au
Clinical member: Counsellors and Psychotherapists Association of NSW.
Other more personal interests and memberships
Member of a working party, through the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW: looking at discrimination against GLBTIQ-identified people in Ageing and Aged-Care Services.
Member of the local choir; writer and poet, Under-Gardener and ardent bushwalker.