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; The Autistic Spectrum; mental illness; suicide and psychopathy. See publications below. Works face to face, on Zoom and on phone, as well as travelling when necessary.
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 feels she does one thing, but does it in a variety of ways!
Photo by Paul Tucker Photography
“There is nothing that’s more empirically validated than Roger’s assumptions about the therapeutic relationships”
Irving Yalom, July 2018
Heartwood is a wonderful Person-Centred charity headed up by Chip Ponsford and Rab Erskine working therapeutically in nature – do check out their website. Heart Wood offers residential CPD training courses in the Heart Wood approach, and facilitated wellbeing days for staff teams. To find out more about their programme, please contact Emma at admin@heartwoodcharity.org or call 01434 607726.
Due to the continued high numbers of infections of Covid, along with the various other infectious viruses, all study days in the Autumn term will continue on Zoom. This allows people from far afield to join for these days without incurring additional travel and accommodation expenses, especially those joining the study days from outside the UK. Please know that if finances have continued to be affected by the virus and/or cost of living, you are welcome to join any of the study days either on a trainee rate of £25 or free, assuming there is already a viable group. Otherwise, each day costs £65, to include handouts, recommended reading and CPD Cert of Attendance.
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. If you would like to attend, please send the attached slip with your booking fee. Jan Hawkins, a Person-Centred therapist, supervisor and trainer, facilitates each day, having a passion for experiential, ongoing learning opportunities for practitioners. Jan has been teaching for over forty years and a therapist for over 35 years.
Saturday 10am
Most of us recognise different aspects of our beings. Some therapeutic traditions refer to ‘plural selves’, multiplicity, Internal Family Systems – more recent modalities refer to ‘parts work’ and in the Person-Centred world to ‘configurations of self’. Each are describing those roles we play where our behaviours and feelings can be different. The person we are in our working lives can feel and behave very differently from the person we are within our families. This workshop will invite participants to explore those inner dimensions in a fun way.
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. Whether you have read the books before, or never even heard of Winnie the Pooh (impossible!!) – This is a day for a light hearted exploration with potential treasures to be found. A day for personal reflection and fun! Who knows where it might take us?! The day will take place at Debden House, (address above)with a beautiful garden, and 50 acres of woodland outside. The perfect setting to meet Winnie the Pooh and his friends.
This workshop will finish at 4.00pm with half an hour break for refreshments. Weather permitting, those who have chosen group or individual walks before dinner will take those, whilst those who have chosen an encounter opportunity will also choose whether that will be inside or outside and for a space of up to two hours pre dinner.
After dinner space for socializing, rest and appreciating the outdoors.
Sunday 10am
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. Having explored our own configurations of self with Winnie the Pooh, we will have seen dissociation as part of human experience, and this will help in understanding when trauma has taken people into deeper realms of dissociative experiencing. Whereas Saturday was a personal development day, today brings us to a professional focus where we seek to deepen our ability to come alongside those who have survived trauma by developing entrenched ways of being in the world which were creative survival strategies. Recognising and supporting our clients who live with dissociative experiencing and/or Dissociative Identity Experience (I prefer this term to DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder) requires deepening of our core attitudinal qualities, by learning more about these complex survival skills.
We finish the day at 4.00pm, refreshments are served and we vacate Debden House by 5.00pm