As a little girl I did not sit pretending to be a therapist, in fact I wanted to be a teacher or vet. As the years went by, I fell into things more by accident than plan. After working many hours each week, the part-time jobs alongside the full-time ones, taking a break to do some travelling I settled down a little into what felt like adult life, taking on more responsibility at work and within my personal life too.
It was through a catalyst of things that brought me to my counselling training. I was made redundant after many years working at the same organisation, this was a bit of a shock to be honest it threw me out into a world, with other possibilities. As someone who is not a natural decision maker, being presented with many choices, also gave me quite a bit of pressure. What did I want to do ? What if I make the wrong choice ? What if I was no good ?
I explored quite a few options to retrain, I even revisited the teacher option. But it was when talking to a good friend, they said I always thought you would make a good counsellor that I had a real intrigue to explore this further. So I read up a little on it and found a course that was the first step of training. And as they say ‘the rest is history !’.
Training to be a counsellor is not an easy journey, as my colleagues, friends and families would no doubt agree. Alongside understanding skills and gaining experience with working with clients, you also undertake the process of therapy and self-awareness that is an essential part of becoming a therapist.
When I look back I had probably been in training for many more years. My friend had seen how I seemed to draw people to be able to come and talk to me, how I could put people at ease and assure them that what they were going through was important and that they were not alone. Having someone trust you is such a privilege and one that I have felt honoured to experience for many years.
During my training I had my end goal to become qualified and then set up my own practice. I have now got this and it feels such a sense of accomplishment, but also like I am now doing what I feel I was meant to be doing !