Who I gain knowledge from
Dr Valerie Sinason
Dr Valerie Sinason is a, child psychotherapist, adult psychoanalyst, author and was Founder/ Director of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies, until her retirement in Dec 2016. I visited her clinic in my first year of psychotherapy training meeting her colleague which a few weeks later gave me the opportunity to train in dissociation in a 10-week course. As time continued, we met many times in various trainings.
Dr. Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar
Dr. Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar attended the class on dissociation at The John Bowlby Centre with me and spoke about his own course called Integrative Mindbody Therapy (IMT) which I took expanding the knowledge I gain at Regents University. As I was working with people who had experienced much trauma, he asked me to teach about dissociation on his course. He has now written a number of books which can be found online.
Regents University
After a year training at Birkbeck I spent 4 years training for a post graduate in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy at Regents University giving many talks on trauma. I became unwell for a short time at Regents so started training in Online counselling. I gained much insight and knowledge from the many tutors who taught my courses at Regents and have attended a few more trainings at Regents including meeting Babette Rothschild who has a good understanding of trauma.
Online counselling
My training in Online counselling happened thanks to Gill Stokes and colleagues at Online Training for counsellors or OLT that ran for many years. I realized I could work from home if my health didn’t improve enough however it did get back to normal. It was 2010 so online counselling wasn’t well known like it has been since Covid19. I worked as a tutor tutoring level 3-6 online counselling and supervision. Here I am with one of the first online supervision book where many colleagues wrote chapters. Mine was on Creating Supervision. It was a pleasure to be part of this book in 2018 before Covid19 meant most had to work online for the first time. My colleagues,myself and our students over the years were more equipped for a pandemic no one saw coming. ACTO is now the place to learn about working online as a clinician.
John and Sandra Wilson
John and Sandra Wilson began Onlinevents so clinicians had the opportunity to attend CPDs (additional training required by therapists) from specialist across the field of therapy from their home or office. I met John first and later his sister Sandra. We last met in person in London last year but more recently online. I now give talks on various topics on trauma a few times a year. Sandra is also a social media expert as well so has assisted me over the years.
Janet Murray
Janet Murray is a journalist and PR coach who assists those like myself in the area of showing the expertise you have depending on training or life experience. She has been the author of a yearly Social Media Diary that both help entrepreneurs and those in varied business. She began café visits to meet small groups of her students and I got the opportunity to meet her in Kent along with other business owners.
You might of noticed on the side of my dress is a medical line and box; that is an insulin pump as I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the early 1970s and live a full and productive life.
Felicity Warner
I worked in a counselling charity assisting those with terminal cancer and other conditions. I wondered about the holistic way one could look after those who were dying. Felicity Warner was founder of the Soul Midwife school training people to care for the dying. Her teachings not only assisted my counselling work with those wanting emotional support before they died, as a volunteer at a nursing home for those with dementia but also with speaking to parents who were losing or lost a premature child. Death is stressful for each person involved including family, friends and medical staff. Is is ok to ask for emotional support.
You might of noticed on the side of my dress is a medical line and box; that is an insulin pump as I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the early 1970s and live a full and productive life.
Political view
I have political view and have attended Parliament over certain UK concerns over the years that have been spoken about such as mental health, homelessness, diabetes and trauma. I am aware cogs move incredibly slow in government but with enough people speaking I hope changes can occur that can help those with distressing situation that may lead to people requiring psychological support. I know when I assisted a rough sleeper’s charity I was meeting those who had faced poverty, being unsupported after military service, unmet needs due to abuse, discrimination and other neglected areas
John Prendergast
John Prendergast is a therapist from Ireland who did a workshop in London. I went to the training to gain an understanding on how I could link my psychotherapy practice with coaching that I had trained in during 2018. He also explained how ones own experiences in the past and training in the present help clients into their present and future. I then decided to do future training with him as he had an understanding of my area of work including anxiety, trauma and using EMDR (I am trained in Brainspotting which was developed by David Grand in America.
Myira Khan
I attended the first conference of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Voices founded by Helen George back in 2018. While attended I met Myira Khan who founded the Muslim Counselling and Psychotherapeutic Network spoke on when two cultures present in the therapy room. She discussed both culture and identity which reviewed gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, ethics/values, age, nationality, family dynamics and language. It was useful to hear the reasons why people who are Muslim maybe uncomfortable seeking counselling and about issues they may want to talk about which was similar to what others speak of such as depression and others like honour/shame which may be present. I learned a lot that day and made a colleague.
Peace
I have also learned to find time to do some self-care to bring a sense of peace to my life. I also share some of these techniques with the people I see so they can also find those important moments of peace.