Becoming a psychotherapist

A wheel depicting how I envisage psychotherapy, using the elements of earth, wind, fire and water as inspiration.

In the years before 2018, I found myself experiencing a season of grieving.  I had been looking ahead and saw that my life as a home educator would one day end, and my children would fly the nest.

I began asking myself questions about the future, my purpose and life's meaning.

While grief is grief, and there is no pressure for it to be anything other than that, for me this grieving process turned out to be transformational. 

As I began to reflect on my life, I recognised that I had spent my time;

• Encouraging autonomy and agency.

• Facilitating growthful experiences for others.

• Committed to my self-development, challenging my beliefs, and I was dedicated to personal growth. 

With this experience in mind, I dipped my toe into a level 2 person-centred counselling course at a local college.  I stayed for level 3, then applied (and went) to Keele University to study person-centred counselling and psychotherapy. 

During lockdown I underwent what can only be described as an unmasking process, using creative expression to make sense of what I was thinking and feeling.

When the MSc began in September, I found I could not squeeze myself back into institutional ways of thinking and working. I felt like my brain had hit a brick wall and I couldn't make it work the way it did before. A savvy and supportive tutor recognised something was amiss, having worked with me the year before.

While encouraging and accepting of who I was and my new way of creatively processing theory within my essays, they gently suggested a visit to Student Learning.

This visit later led to multiple neurodivergent diagnoses and a change in course. I decided during my first year that working creatively had become so important to me that I could not ignore how it might also be helpful to future clients. 

I graduated from Edge Hill University with an MSc in Contemporary and Creative Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy (Distinction).

Natalie Rogers says;

'It is important to experience personally what you wish to adopt professionally. When you have discovered this process to be healing for yourself, you are ready to take the next step...'

(Rogers, 1993: 13). 

This personal journey has deeply influenced my professional practice.