Jane McDonald

Counselling, for me, is a conversation that can witness your story and connect past experience with what is happening now. I am a humanistic and integrative counsellor with a psychodynamic focus, so we look at present difficulties with your history and childhood in mind. When you feel stuck, or at a crisis in your emotional life, the aim is to understand yourself and to loosen conflicts, in a way that can bring both solace and change.

Being body-oriented is part of the practice. Sensations can be a way into thoughts and emotions, and a way to steady yourself.

At the beginning I offer a short call. We use it to look at what counselling would involve and to decide whether we are suited to working together. I may suggest another therapist or service. We may also find that the times, or the fit, are not right.

Sometimes we connect what is happening now with earlier experience. I take the relationship seriously from the start. It is the thread I rely on when the material is difficult.

I offer short-term and long-term therapy for adults, with anxiety, depression, trauma, and bereavement.

The work has moved toward complex trauma. Many of the people I see are neurodiverse, gender-fluid, or both, and some have lived through one acute traumatic event. I frequently work with grief, anxiety, and depression. I also see people who feel overwhelmed, stuck, or in a period of change.

I bring a humanistic and psychodynamic way of listening, from integrative counselling. The qualities I try to embody are authenticity, empathy, and compassion.

I am a BACP Registered Member (MBACP). I work as an integrative counsellor. I receive regular supervision and I keep doing further professional development.