Intuitive Therapist in Liss and Petersfield, Hampshire
Dr Elaine Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Survive When the World Overwhelms You.
I am a highly experienced and qualified therapist with over 20 years of professional experience, including in the Mental Health sector. I studied Humanistic Counselling at Chichester University.
I love learning all things spiritual, metaphysical, and anything to do with personal growth. I have a sensitive teenage son whom I am able to teach all the things I wish I knew when I was his age. I love walking in nature with our dogs, and I am a tree hugger! They are great for re-grounding when I am in my head too much and feeling ‘floaty’; it reminds me to put my own roots down, just like the trees. And as for sitting under the moonlight, well…
I am fully insured through the Holistic Insurance Services and am a member of:
My original career was as a draughtswoman working in the electro-mechanical engineering field. I have worked in large, busy, male-dominated environments, working to tight deadlines. Back then, I actually enjoyed the fast-paced and, at times, stressful days of working in consulting engineering. I have also experienced difficult work relationships with colleagues and managers, harassment, last-minute changes leading to plenty of overtime, the threat of redundancy, etc. I am aware of the stresses and strains of business and how challenging it can be.
In the mid-90’s, I enrolled in a massage course, then another massage course, then another! These were quickly followed by Reiki and Hopi Ear Candling. Before I knew it, I had taken a redundancy package and was working from home as a Complementary Therapist. It wasn’t long before I discovered that a bad back was very often an emotional package – my clients were telling me their life stories, and I always ran over time in sessions!
I then took on various support worker roles to gain further experience, the last one being in mental health, both community and inpatient, which has given me much experience in working with a diverse range of issues. I am used to working with various agencies to ensure the best care for each individual and have worked on a 1–1 basis as well as running community groups. I have worked for private providers, the NHS, and Adult Services as a support worker and provided counselling in local GP surgeries for the NHS.
Along this journey, there is also my personal life. I think it is important to say that I haven’t just learned everything I know from a text book or course tutor. In my life, I have had plenty of those difficult times where you wonder, “Is this it? Is this it for the rest of my life? Is this all I deserve?” You know, those tough times when you can’t see a way forward, the difficult relationships that you wish you never had that actually teach you so much about yourself, and the poor decisions based on inexperience or a lack of support and guidance.
I have lived with an alcoholic and experienced stress, intense fear, lack of money (because he drank it all), and eventually losing my home. I have been to Alanon, a 12-step recovery program for family and friends of alcoholics, and worked the 12-step programme. This is a spiritual program originating from Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in 1935. It is known worldwide as the most successful recovery program. It later transpired that my alcoholic was self-medicating his undiagnosed bipolar illness. Unbeknownst to me, I had been living with two illnesses that, at the time, I knew nothing about.
I have also been on the receiving end of psychological abuse and spent time in a women’s refuge. At that point, it had taken me three attempts to leave my ex. What followed were years of self-reflection to understand why I chose the wrong kind of man. What was it in me that didn’t believe I was worthy of a healthy relationship? I came to realise that we choose people and situations in life so that we can learn from them.
I have had therapy in different ways at different times in my life, depending on my needs. We all benefit from help now and again to help us see our blocks, even as therapists, and I believe that it helps me to be the best for my clients. It is what helps me to counsel, coach, and mentor my clients.
What I Can Offer You
My key strengths and uniqueness include being highly intuitive, sensitive and creative in my work; I easily tune into my client and get a sense of what is needed. As someone who loves reading and researching, I call upon many different theories and practices from both eastern and western philosophies. Being able to combine all the above and by working flexibly gives me an edge. If you believe that you need someone who is highly qualified in just one modality rather than working holistically, then I am not the therapist for you.
Working intuitively, I have an active, creative, and holistic approach to counselling based on the belief that we all have the answers we need within us. By taking personal responsibility for our own lives and with the help of someone who will not be emotionally involved, we can start to see solutions. We can do this in a number of ways, starting with the here and now, gaining self-awareness, and being open to new perspectives.
Here are some links for further information on the areas that I specialise in:
The Highly Sensitive Person and Sensory Processing Sensitivity – Dr Elaine Aron, research psychologist here.
Understanding the empath nature here.
Information and support on Domestic abuse can be found here, here, here and here.
Information on hypermobility and Ehlers Danlos can be found here, here, here and the Zebra Club for movement and meditation for hypermobility here.