Therapeutic Coaching for Couples
Intensive Transformational Couple Therapeutic Coaching – a two day course of coaching in effective communication, connection, encounter, intimacy and healing accumulated wounds.
- Is your marriage or partnership strained?
- Are you trying to heal your relationship after an affair?
- Are you managing the effects of addiction in your relationship and looking to change?
- Do you want to create a relationship that is safe, passionate, and long lasting?
- Is separation or divorce looming?
- Do you want to improve your relationship and re-connect with your partner?
- Are you interested in learning skills that will help you create more effective communication in your relationships, not only with your spouse or partner, but also with your children?
When your most intimate relationship is feeling strained, it is painful and stressful. Couples can find themselves behaving in ways they could never have predicted in those early loving times. Any children in the relationship can be affected and this can add to the stress all round. Whether you are married, engaged, beginning a new relationship, in a committed partnership, or wanting to repair communication in any relationship, this intensive course can help:
- Develop new ways of resolving conflicts together
- Re-establish effective communication with your partner
- Increase passion and intimacy
- Recreate and enhance the friendship you share with each other
- Develop your confidence in your abilities to communicate more effectively and connect on a deeper level in all your relationships.
Consultancy in the Workplace
Teams in conflict; teams wishing to address stress management to aid healthy team productivity; teams who have been traumatised by specific events; teams who want in house training on specific topics, are all met with bespoke prepared facilitation to meet the needs of the particular group. Jan has offered critical incident debriefing to organisations, and supervised for London Ambulance Service supporting their peer Support Teams. She has given training to teams in residential care, developing their understanding and skills in meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities, autism, the epilepsies, and ‘challenging behaviours’.
Consultancy for Film Companies
Consults with Film companies to support those making films and those who are the subjects of films. Has worked on documentaries as well as docu drama and drama films. Areas of particular experience: childhood trauma/abuse; vicarious trauma (especially important in those making films involving traumatic material); end of life and bereavement; learning disabilities; Autistic Spectrum Disorder. See publications below. Works face to face, on Skype and on phone, as well as travelling when necessary.
About Jan
Jan Hawkins is a Person-Centred therapist, supervisor, group facilitator and trainer. Informed by trainings in psychodynamic, CBT, SFT, and other therapeutic traditions, prior to arriving home in the Person-Centred Approach, she is passionately committed to providing relationships in which clients, supervisees and groups are able to change and grow in self directed, yet accompanied, ways.
Jan ran groups for Survivors of childhood abuse during the early nineties, controversially offering groups with women and men together, and for those who had experienced any type of abuse. Many students and supervisees reported their difficulties in locating good, practical and developmental training for practitioners focussing on the issues raised by a history of childhood abuse. In response to this expressed need in 1994 Jan created, and co-facilitated, a Diploma course in Counselling Survivors of Childhood Abuse, the first initiative of its kind in Europe. Since then, through FDP, Jan has continued to run post counselling training courses and study days with a conviction that experiential learning is imperative for the continued development and deepening of the core attitudinal qualities of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard, which are crucial to Person-Centred and other relationship focussed therapies. She has been particularly keen to encourage therapists to extend their practice to people with learning disabilities, many of whom suffer silently from their legacies of childhood abuse.
A background in lecturing in psychology and special needs, and her experiences over 30+ years since working with her first client in therapy, Jan feels blessed to have worked in a variety of settings. With a core of therapy and supervision, she also consults with filmmakers, and supports palliative care teams in their work. Jan feel she does one thing, but does it in a variety of ways!
Thought of the Week
It is never too late to be what you might have been
George Eliot
Due to the continued uncertainty with the COVID Pandemic, all study days in the New Year term will be on Zoom. Please know that anyone whose finances are affected by the virus, is welcomed to join the day either on a trainee rate of £25 or free, assuming there is already a viable group.
So please do let me know if any of the following study days, certificated for 6 hours of CPD, appeals to you, and if you need the free or trainee places.
Each day will consist of some input on the topic, experiential processing, and space to discuss practice issues relating to the theme. Each workshop will be from 10.00am till 4.00pm with a longer than usual lunch break to allow for Zoom rest and will cost £65. If you would like to attend, please send the attached slip with your booking fee. Jan Hawkins facilitates each day, having a passion for experiential, ongoing learning opportunities for practitioners. Jan has been teaching for over thirty years and a therapist for over 30 years.
Touch in Therapy
Friday 9th April 2021
The issue of touch within therapy relationships relies on the personal integrity of the therapist, unless the tradition of therapy they practice prohibits it altogether. This day will provide space for focus on each participant’s relative comfort and/or discomfort with touch within therapeutic relationships. We will consider what might constitute ‘safe’ touch between therapist and client, as well as the potential healing aspects of touch. Whilst not seeking to advocate touch as an aspect of all therapeutic relationships, where touch does feel appropriate, natural and potentially healing, to rule it out may serve to undermine the relationship rather than enhance it. This day will explore questions and encourage each participant to reflect and consider where touch fits into their own practice.
Dreams – how may these be explored in person-centred therapy?
Saturday 24th April 2021
What fascinates me about the dreams that my clients bring to their sessions, is that the client often changes in their dream world before changing in their conscious, waking life. The rich world of dreams in both superficial and deep ways can provide a way of deepening understanding when the therapist is willing to take the client’s lead into the exploration of the story of the dream. Person-centred practitioners may enjoy exploring how dreams may be responded to without losing the self-directed nature of the therapeutic relationship. Participants are invited to bring along a dream to focus on during the day.
Selective empathy
Friday 7th February May 2021
How is it that sometimes we feel heard and deeply accompanied, whilst at others we feel that our communication skills have collapsed, or that the listener has just changed the subject? Whilst we may expect, tolerate and understand this in our everyday relationships, how would we feel if our therapist seemed to be doing the very same thing? Person-centred practitioners aim to provide the core attitudinal qualities of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard. How do we spot our own selective empathy? This day will allow participants to explore the possible blind spots or unresolved issues that cause selective empathy. It will include discussion of the self-directed nature of the person-centred process, and how unrecognized selective empathy may subtly be directing.
Vicarious trauma
Friday 21st May 2021
This day will focus on the effects of listening to traumatic experiences, and how we may be vulnerable to taking that trauma within ourselves in our work. Sometimes known as ‘compassion fatigue’, “empathic strain,” “secondary victimization,” (Lindy, 1988; Figley, 1983), bearing witness to another’s trauma will affect us. On this day we will explore the variety of ways in which our accompanying of another as they work with their trauma can affect us, and how we can recognize and attend to our own needs.
Counselling and the Autistic Spectrum
Friday 4th June 2021
The autistic spectrum is a broad umbrella incorporating such terms as ‘Asperger’s Syndrome’, ‘Autism’, ‘High Functioning Autism’ and ‘Autistic spectrum disorder’. Many children and adults who have diagnoses within the spectrum are able to attend mainstream schools, colleges and workplaces, yet they can experience a great deal of confusion and anxiety in any social setting. This study day will focus on the autistic thinking style and how this impacts on everyday living and in particular on the counselling relationship. Time will be given to input/discussion, experiential processing and discussion of case work where desirable by participants. Jan Hawkins has been working with adolescents and adults with within the autistic spectrum for 40 years and has an adult son who has autism. She also gives training on issues relevant learning disabilities, taking her understanding of the inner worlds of her clients to residential care workers, support workers, social workers, teachers and counsellors.
The healing power of story: Winnie the Pooh and the inner landscape
Saturday 26th June 2021
There is a potency for healing available in fairy tales, myths and stories. Certain stories grip us, whilst others leave us cold. The story of Winnie the Pooh can be rediscovered in many ways, one of which is reflecting on our own inner landscapes, and aspects of ourselves. This day will allow personal reflection on inner states and characters as they relate to Christopher Robin and friends. A day for personal reflection and fun! Who knows where it might take us?!
Dissociation – Creative Survival
Saturday 10th July 2021
Where there is chronic abuse in childhood many learn to survive by dissociating from the experience. This may involve leaving the body, numbing out, splitting off, depersonalising and/or derealising. This day will focus on what dissociation is, how it acts as a somewhat protective strategy, and how we may empower individuals who may be experiencing dissociation now.
Publications
Collateral Damage: Casualties of Alcohol Misuse: An Anthology
Paperback – 17 Jan. 2020
This anthology contains chapters written by individuals who have been affected by loving/caring about someone close, whose use of alcohol has impacted on the relationship. There is so much literature focusing on the experience of alcohol addiction or dependency in the medical and professional helper material, but scant attention given to those who live with and/or are affected by the person whose drinking is causing harm. Those who have given their time to this project have done so using their own voices. This gives the collection a variety of styles which provides the reader with a wide set of experiences. The editor is eager to encourage writing as a therapeutic option when processing painful experiences, especially where the individuals are unable – due to their loved one’s alcohol misuse – to have the open dialogue which might help them. Sadly in all the cases presented herein, the contributors are left to manage the effects of another person’s departure into a different world, a person they have loved and cared for. For those who love someone who misuses alcohol, this book will offer company. The contributors have shared experiences they have previously found impossible to talk about. Readers may find themselves in these stories, and as a result, feel less lonely.
Listening to their Voices: The Person-Centred Approach to Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Paperback – 17 Dec. 2017
This book includes verbatim interview contributions from individuals who have ASD, their parents, siblings, and some professionals. It is written by a therapist who works with all those groups, so that other chapters include examples of the lives and experiences of those with ASD. The purpose of the book is to introduce the how to of Person-Centred Planning, by introducing the Person-Centred Approach to anybody supporting people with ASD. Readers would include support workers, social workers, counsellors/therapists, medical practitioners, volunteers, and any other practitioners aiming to support people with ASD to reach their best potential in life.
Voices of the Voiceless: Person-Centred Approaches for People with Learning Difficulties
Paperback – 1 Jan. 2002
“Voices of the Voiceless” is an inspiring, passionate and comprehensive exploration that offers hope and encouragement to counsellors and practitioners working with people living with learning difficulties. Although the effects of learning difficulties and the effects of society’s treatment of people with learning difficulties are lifelong and often severe, counselling and healing are possible. The author argues that even those people who have the most severe learning disabilities can benefit from counselling, and not simply from behaviour management or medication to manage and control them. Jan Hawkins integrates 15 years’ experience of counselling and her 25 years’ experience as a mother of a person with learning difficulties. The book contains many moving accounts of the healing process and detailed examples of interdisciplinary working and the power the Person-Centred Approach offers for those who are metaphorically and often literally voiceless.