My training

Practising Walk-and-Talk Counselling and Other Ecotherapy (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Simon Heath, 1.5 hours online, 09/02/2024)

Working with clients with depression Parts 1, 2 & 3 (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Sally-Ann Armitage, 4.5 hours online, 02/03/2024)

Understanding and managing loneliness (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 19/03/2024)

Emotional accompanying techniques in online therapy (1.5 hours online, Instituto Galene, Madrid, 2023)

Mod.1 Technical requisites and room preparation: 

1. for the client
2. for the therapist

Mod.2 Generating and strengthening the therapeutic bond

Mod.3 How to delve into and accompany emotions remotely

1. Remote techniques for emotional expression. Comforting clients
2. Techniques for managing anger
3. Techniques for managing sadness
4. Techniques for managing fear
5. Work with the body and physical expression
6. Taking care of and maintaining regressive work

Curso básico en psicofarmacología (ÁPHICE, Nelson Alfredo Guevara Vélez, 6 hours online, 08/03/2023)

Bereavement awareness (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Nicola Hughes, 1.5 hours online, 26/03/2023)

1st Global Summit Science Nature and Health (Diputació de Barcelona and Forest Therapy Hub, various presenters, 20 hours attended online, 29-30/03/2023)

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Suzanne Zeelyk, 1.5 hours online, 05/04/2023)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Richard Bennett, 1.5 hours online, 13/04/2023)

Reflective journalling (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Emma Chapman, 1.5 hours online, 13/04/2023)

Relational Depth (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Mick Cooper, 1.5 hours online, 13/04/2023)

Working with metaphor (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 14/04/2023)

An introduction to anxiety disorders (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Michelle Vicars , 1.5 hours online, 18/04/2023)

Understanding anxiety disorders and supportive strategies (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Kate Williams, 1.5 hours online, 19/04/2023)

Working with immediacy (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 21/04/2023)

Reflecting and paraphrasing (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 21/04/2023)

Walk and talk – therapy in the outdoors (Creative Counsellors, Gaynor Rimmer y Tanja Sharpe, 3 hours online, 08/05/2023)

Paraphrasing (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 19/05/2023)

Using silence effectively (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 19/05/2023)

Attending (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 02/06/2023)

Skills evaluation (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 02/06/2023)

Overcoming imposter syndrome (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 16/06/2023)

Configurations of self (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 27/06/2023)

Implicit and explicit patterns of relating (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 27/06/2023)

What is social and therapeutic horticulture? (Thrive, 5 hours online, 19/10/2023)

What is green care? (Thrive, 5 hours online, 24/10/2023)

Growing your private practice (Counselling Tutor Continuing Professional Development, Jane Travis, 1.5 hours online, 26/10/2023)

Social and therapeutic horticulture practice (Thrive, 15 hours online, 17/11/2023)

Formación en emprendimiento agrícola (Barrios Productores, 150 hours online and F-2-F, 19/12/2023)

Masters in Humanistic Integrative Counselling (Instituto Galene, Madrid, 2021-2022)

Master’s course (2022)

M.1 Personality structures. Psychopathology and psychodiagnosis in therapy.

1. Psychodiagnosis in therapy. Neurotic structures.

2. Psychodiagnosis in therapy. Borderline and psychotic structures. 

3. Personality adaptations and intervention strategies. 

    Face-to-face: psychopathology and psychodiagnosis in therapy.

M.2 Professional practice.

4. The therapeutic structure in HIP. 

5. Supervision and professional practice.

6. Couples, families and groups in therapeutic work.

7. Sex and therapy

    Evaluations (2)

M.3 Trauma and intervention in crisis situations.

8. Working with trauma. 

9. Intervention in crisis situations.

    Face-to-face: Trauma and Supervision

M.4 Emotional work techniques. The body in the accompanying process. 

10. The incorporation of the body into the therapeutic process. 

11. Emotional work techniques.

           Face-to-face: emotional work techniques (residential).

      The body in therapy.

M.5 The practice of Humanistic Integrative Counselling (HIC). Specialisation in HIC

12. Organisational and educational counselling.

13. Counselling in public health.

14. Specific counselling techniques. Promoting change from HIC. 

      Face-to-face: The practice of HIC

M.6 Internship module

15. Internship with real clients.

     Face-to-face: putting HIC into practice.

     Final exam

M.7 Master’s dissertation: 

       ‘Combining Walk-and-Talk therapy with Humanistic Integrative Counselling’

Clients who self-harm (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 18/03/2022)

Trauma and the brain (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 03/05/2022)

Preparing to work with sexual abuse (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 2 hours online, 13/05/2022)

Attending in counselling (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 0.5 hours online, 17/06/2022)

Barriers to communication (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1 hour online, 17/06/2022)

Note-taking in counselling (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 0.5 hours online, 17/06/2022)

Note-taking (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 17/06/2022)

The skill of questioning (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 0.5 hours online, 17/06/2022)

Using the skill of focusing in counselling (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Sally-Anne Armitage, 1 hour online, 30/09/2022)

Masters in Humanistic Integrative Counselling (Instituto Galene, Madrid, 2021-2022)

Postgraduate course (2021)

P.1 The structure of Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy (HIP)

1. Introduction to Humanistic Psychotherapy and Counselling.

2. Transactional Analysis in Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling

    (Level 1 y 2).

    Face-to-face: The structure of Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy. 

               Transactional Analysis.

P.2 The therapeutic relationship

3. Basic psychoanalytic concepts.

4. Attachment and evolution development theory.

5. The therapeutic relationship and basic HIP techniques. The 5 intervention levels.

    Face-to-face: the therapeutic relationship and the 5 intervention levels. 

P.3 Basic therapeutic techniques

6. Gestalt in Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling (Level 1 y 2).

7. Basic emotional techniques in therapy. 

    Face-to-face: Therapeutic techniques.

   Introduction to grieving.

P.4 Advanced therapeutic techniques. The therapeutic grieving model

8. Therapeutic grieving.

9. Advanced techniques in the humanistic integrative model. 

    Face-to-face: the therapeutic grieving experience 

P.5 Development in professional practice

10. Transference and countertransference in the therapeutic relationship.

11. Learning to close.

      Face-to-face: professional practice and closure.

P.6 Professional integration. The humanistic integrative therapist

12. Evaluations (2)

13. Therapist’s journal

Understanding key concepts in Transactional Analysis (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Lisa Mathurin, 1.5 hours online, 15/03/2021)

Principles of Transactional Analysis Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resource, Rory Lees-Oakes,1.5 hours online, 17/03/2021)

Freud’s key theories (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 30/04/2021)

Attachment theory (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 11/05/2021)

Understanding and working with attachment styles (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Emma Chapman, 1.5 hours online, 13/05/2021)

Winnicott’s attachment theories (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 1.5 hours online, 13/05/2021)

The skill of challenge (Counselling Tutor Counselling Study Resourse, Rory Lees-Oakes, 0.5 hours online, 17/06/2021)

I supplemented my training in 2024 with a course on ecotherapy, which really confirmed what I already know and what I already do, but made it clear that a focus on using nature in therapy is becoming more common and prevalent in therapy and in people’s general wellbeing.

Another important course I have done is on depression and how to help accompany clients with different degrees of depression. What I most took from it was that the therapy works better if you, as the therapist, have a very genuine and real attitude towards the person, as otherwise, the therapeutic relationship doesn’t develop and you can’t accompany them in what they need.

An important part of my training was to improve my online therapy techniques in a course I did early on in 2023. This involved the dull areas such as how to screen share or deal with technical glitches, things which don’t happen in face-to-face sessions. However, more importantly it helped me learn how to be close to a client who is on a screen and how to develop a therapeutic relationship, dealing with emotions, things which are vital for therapy to work.

I did more training on trauma, but more specifically on developmental trauma or adverse childhood experiences, which relates to how slowly, due to some kind of physical or mental neglect or abuse during childhood, a person can find it difficult to manage life as an adult. As in my training in 2022, I found I could see this kind of trauma, which can be very subtle as it develops in clients, and so learning to help them to realise what had happened to them and then find ways to live with that and move on has been fundamental to my work.

Another important area was learning more about anxiety as it seems to affect more and more people and is a reason why many come to therapy. It’s vital to know how to calm a client and to help them to learn how to calm themselves in times of anxiousness, so that they can get by in the day-to-day and learn to live in the here and now.

I also did more training on therapy techniques, such as reflecting and paraphrasing, using metaphors or even using silence in sessions. When a person doesn’t know how to express themselves or finds it hard to speak, I need to know different ways to make it easier for them to get through sessions and say what they need to say or not.

Finally, in 2023 I found a way to do more training related to outdoor therapy in a course on walk and talk therapy and then a course on social and therapeutic horticulture. I found the two very interconnected, as many of the techniques we use in both types of therapy are the same or similar, for example, using objects that we find in nature to help us express what we mean or what we feel. To complement this, I did a course on urban horticulture to learn how to manage an ecological allotment.

In the second year of my Master’s in Humanistic Integrative Counselling (HIC) the most important factor for me was doing my internship as a counsellor with clients (50 hours in total). I got a great grounding in how to carry out the structure of each session and, of course, had vital feedback from my supervisor to guide me in how I approached each client. Another area which had a big impact on my practice was the focus on trauma, as I see in clients, and as in my own life, that trauma, from whatever source, has a huge impact on people, and therefore on society. I couldn’t be a therapist without this knowledge and training. Finally, the practical work we experienced ourselves on the course on the importance of the mind-body connection has been an invaluable part of learning to help clients realise that ‘the body keeps the score’ of our mental state, and that they can get into contact with their emotions through physical interventions to help them heal. I really learned by ‘doing’ in this area of the course.

With Counselling Tutor, I also benefitted this year from courses on specific techniques when speaking to clients, to help me really listen to them and to know how to get from them what they need to be able to heal, such as, attending and focusing or questioning in a way that builds the therapeutic relationship.

In the first year of my Master’s degree in humanistic integrative counselling (HIC) I learned the basics of psychology and the areas of it which relate to IHC, which are Person Centred Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt and therapies which incorporate the mind-body connection. The most important aspect of this course for me was the impact of the client-therapist relationship, as it is the safe and solid base from which a person can find their way to a healthier way of living their life. The emotional and therapeutic techniques I learned have been invaluable in sessions with my clients, as, at some point, they need to be able to feel what is happening inside them, in addition to understanding it.

The extra training I did in Transactional Analysis at Counselling Tutor helped me to understand how to use psycho education with clients so that they understand their relationships with other people, as they learn to develop their own self-esteem and have their own criteria in life.

Also, the training I did in Attachment Theory at Counselling Tutor helped me to work out how clients developed their typical behaviours as adults based on how they were brought up, and after listening really well to them, to help them realise how they can change to new behaviours which will help them learn to move through life more easily and calmly.