I believe that the majority of counsellors and psychotherapists are motivated to train because they want to learn about themselves. They often have unresolved issues and have usually experienced therapy themselves.

This is not as worrying as it may seem. It’s a good foundation – a healthy starting point.  A person who simply wants to help others, without being aware of their own struggles, is potentially dangerous because there is a significant power imbalance. To engage with a client thinking one knows the solution, is non-therapeutic, offering something which one can receive on a daily basis in everyday life even when not requested! But a counsellor who believes in the value of therapy, because they have been there, have worked on their own process and are constantly grappling with the complexities of being human, is likely to be able to maintain empathy and curiosity. They are likely to be able to provide a safer, non-judgmental space.

So my story …

I am an HSP, a highly sensitive person. This means I have a somewhat neurodivergent brain! I feel things very intensely and need to understand them on a deep level. Like many children of my generation, I had parents who didn’t have the wherewithal to support me and settle my nervous system. So I was labelled ‘the weak one’.  As I grew up, like most of us, I encountered various additional traumas. These went underground. So much was held in my body, and I was always seeking ways to make sense of my experience. My family were church people, and I heard a lot about healing. I was puzzled and curious about how this worked.

I was seeking wisdom from an early age.

My HSP brain and need for wholeness led me in a number of directions. Some of these were painful. Some were dead ends. But I guess I always learned something. In my early forties, after a few attempts to find help with mixed results, including seeing a therapist, I decided to attend a ten-week Introduction to Counselling.

This was the beginning of my ongoing love affair with the therapy world which changed and shaped my life.