We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.
Carl Rogers, A Way of Being, 1980
My name is Jen and as a trained and experienced counsellor I am passionate and enthusiastic about both the person-centred approach and the natural world – the ‘more-than-human’ world. Originally from Perthshire, I now live and work in the Inverness area, offering individual counselling sessions, outdoor therapy and nature connection events.
From a background of many years as an intensive care nurse, I made the leap into my counselling training in 2018 when I embarked on my postgraduate diploma in person-centred counselling and psychotherapy. It was a listening and coaching workshop in my nursing years that first introduced me to the experience of being really heard and deeply understood, and I realised properly for the first time that this is not something we often encounter in every-day life. I experienced the power of deep empathy and attentive listening and how they can help us find more clarity about the way we are feeling, or bring more understanding, awareness and meaning to the things we are experiencing. This sowed the seed of an idea about the direction I wanted to move in my life and career, and from there I began exploring the idea of re-training.
I have found my ‘home’ in the person-centred approach – the theories and ideas make sense to me and fit with the way I understand the world. The humanity and compassion of the approach, the deep respect for the client, the trust and faith in our potential and tendency for growth; these all resonate with me. I connect deeply with the belief that our emotional struggles and distress in life are not a marker of dysfunction or failure or disorder, that there isn’t something ‘wrong’ with us, that we don’t need to be ‘fixed’ when we experience psychological distress. Instead, the person-centred approach suggests we simply haven’t been given the right conditions to thrive, to move towards our potential. The counselling relationship in the person-centred approach strives to offer these ‘conditions’ – the right climate – where a client can grow, particularly through the attitudes within the counsellor of empathy, unconditional acceptance, authenticity and deep self-awareness, as well as the principle of non-directivity (understood fundamentally as a deep respect for the personhood of the client, and the endeavour not to ‘get in the way’ of their personal process).
Qualifications
Postgraduate Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Persona Development and Training, University of Aberdeen, 2018-2020
FTHub Certificate in Nature Connection Facilitation Forest Therapy Hub 2024
Training Certificate in Outdoor Emergency First Aid BASP 2024
Taking Therapy Outside The Centre for Natural Reflection 2023
Advanced Certificate in Trauma-Focused Therapy The Link Centre 2022
COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills Edinburgh College & Glasgow Caledonian University 2017-2018
Introduction to Counselling Birkbeck College, University of London 2013
BSc Nursing Studies King’s College London 2002-2005
