About Us

This sections invites you to look at the wider context of the world we currently live in as we sit in the seat of reflective choice.

“What is the world you operate in requiring you to step up to and what are the areas in which you struggle to respond?”  

Hawkins & McMahon (2020:13)  

Harari (2015:218) quoted by Hawkins & McMahon (2020:12) explains the nature of consumer addiction.  We have become blind to recognise the addiction for more is consuming the earths resources faster than is sustainable.  This false refuge is promising happiness if we were just to have more and has become habitual, ahead of a sense of personal and collective meaningful living.  

The corrective measure requires a major shift in human consciousness, from human-centricity to humility. A shift which requires an acknowledgement  from the environment is there to serve human want to becoming aware of the environment as part of us. 

Without this shift we have no healthy or sustainable life. ahead of us and that comes with a coroners guarantee.

If we couple that with the work of Taylor-Shore 2022 where she reminds us that

 '...we're biologically wired to care a ton about fairness. This is  in our DNA. It's not just in our DNA, it's in every DNA of any pack animal on the planet.  And it may, according to Antonio Damasio, it may even be written into DNA of single-cell  bacteria, how much we care about fairness. So basically anyone who's interdependent  as a way of surviving cares a lot about if somebody is overusing resources because then there won't be enough for other people. And so we are wired to pay attention if things are fair or not.'

'I believe clinically we are likely to see two emerging patterns in the decades to come... symptoms which increase justice are likely to be on the up along side Misery-by-More (a false refuse symptom perceived to increasing wellbeing). As the rest of the world still plagued by consumer addiction Misery-Mine, openly binge and purge on the resources we all need to survive, fairness will become the theme of narration.' 

Chapell 2022

Neurobiologically Informed Trauma Practitioner

The principal intregative Developmental Model of supervision combines developmental theories and model of learning occurring in certain states, their combined theories imply learning either happens or does not and knowing what is getting in the way enables both supervisor and supervisee to identify, remove or overcome the block to learning. 

The process of becoming a good enough therapist is ongoing, we are always in a state of becoming, never arriving, which relies on a foundation of forever learning, turning data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom. 

Hawkins & Ryde (2020) cautions that too much data flooding prevents the organic growth into wisdom, inferring that learning is simply a natural organic and internal process. 

A striking notion from Stoltenberg and McNeil(2010) who cite Gagne, Yekovich, and Yekovich (1993) is that of schemata is central to applying evolving principals of learning. Whereby data of various categories are organised together, and similarities noted within the learner. 

Activation of any one element of the schema data collection  primes further cross linkage and differentiation, leading to new examples being identified and inferences drawn. These commonalities collectively form a principal across instances and a standard which will allow or reject new examples into that collection. This standard is not fixed but instead there is an automatic calculation of mean which occurs after a new experience is added, which influences the selection criteria and principals there on.  Hence it allows our experience and applied principals to progressively develop over time into applied wisdom. 

However, schemata are only formed when similarities are noted and this is not automatic.  Suggesting that a key stance for optimum progression (under Anderson’s Model) that must form a foundational floor for the work, requires the supervisor to create an intentional learning environment where conscious invitations for noticing similarities across direct examples are made available to the supervisee in the same way our earth supplies the air we breathe.  Thereby developing and refined schemata. This conclusion is support by Strozier, Kivlighan, and Thoreson (1993) cited by Wheeler, S., and Richards, K., (2007) where intensions were correlated with supervisee reactions and led to predictors of development namely facilitated by focus, support and challenge. 

Without this invitation to notice similarities, supervisee experiences may not become encoded to benefit future problems solving at all.  Although supervisors must be cautioned from assuming generalised skills will then apply across different domains. 

Can you relate to this way of learning, if not how do you learn best?

This section Invites you to understand the hidden motives behind yours and others desire to do the helping work. 

'We blindly associate those who help others as valiant knights in armour to be admired, rarely recognising that unresolved personal trauma turns this valiant move into an addiction to suffocate those on the receiving end. A behaviour that without  self-awareness and left unchecked; most would condemn along side gaslighting and narcissism.  The alarming concern for me is currently the damage to clients which goes unchecked under the bravado of privacy.   But we must not be blind to the risks that as dependency grows in the client upon the wounded healer to oxygenate them, the unchecked wounded healer's dependency grows in turn, as their addiction to suffocate keeps them, themselves from drowning'

Chapell 2022

Neurobiologically Informed Trauma Practitioner shares her views on the risks of confirmation bias.

Hawkins & McMahon (2020), supply some sentence starters to help you to differentiate between your core beliefs and our attachment to them.

As you go through them catch the first spontaneous thoughts for efficacy.

• I assume that people are generally...
• People should always...
• People should never...
• I have a right to be angry if...
• Emotions are...
• I should never...
• I should always...
• Clients are...
• Therapists are people who...
• Supervisors should...

Notice the pattern of assumptions because it is our core assumptions  and fears that create our resistance to change.

When we change our relationship with the past we change our perception of the current, because the past has ultimate right of way in order to keep us safe Taylor-Shore (2022).  

Sometimes it is going to be hard to face the reality that looking after others is routed in a false refuge from personal trauma.  Whilst this is a pattern we see in our clients occasionally some helpers are going to stumble across some counselling courses  which does not require sufficient personal therapy to resolve this before qualifying. This does not make you a bad practitioner nor does it mean you are unfit.  But being aware that you have a inverse relationship between your staying out of your survival response and the growth of your client is key.  If as a practitioner, you find it very comfortable to have clients totally dependant on your support this should be a reg flag to you and should prompt a conversation with your supervisor and personal therapist, remembering that this is a symptom merely trying to increase wellbeing. Learning healthy resources to keep your adrenaline levels low and your self regulation high is key to letting go of taking care of others as a survival strategy.

This section invites you to think about the resources that help and support you to prevent burnout.

The current models of training teach you to deploy empathy as one of the three core conditions, (empathy, acceptance and unconditional positive regard)

Empathy defined as feeling with... 

rather than 

Sympathy defined as thinking for...

But according to the research undertaken by Tanya Singer with the French monk, Matthieu Ricard the use of empathy alone  is a water tight guarantee for empathic distress, which leads to burnout but also undermines therapeutic efficacy.   

Stay in empathic distress for too long and we are going to activate our own threat system (fight flight freeze etc).  

When our threat system is activated we start defending against that threat.

Juliana Taylor-Shore (2022) explains 

'So if I'm in a therapist chair, and I'm experiencing empathic distress, one of the things I'm going to do is I might do either try to get that person to feel something different than what they're feeling, or I might move myself psychologically distance myself from them, maybe start telling myself stories about them being resistant to treatment, or about how they're not seeing this clearly, or they're not taking in what I'm trying to tell them. So that's a way that I'm trying to either distance myself or shift the thing that's causing me distress, in this case, that feeling from the other person.

But the study showed Compassion had an inverse relationship with our threat system.  So when we are in high Compassions we are in low threat activation.

Compassion defined as feeling for ...

The study showed that oscillating between empathy and compassion not only reduced the threat activation but provided longevity in staying with the other persons distress and provided  differentiation and separation within itself  overall reducing practitioner burnout. 

Stoltenburg and McNeil (2010:47) caution inexperienced supervisors from leaning on counselling skills when they have a poor understanding of supervision. A supervisor has a clear route which stays within the law and ethics and is ready to guide when the supervisee goes into unchartered territories.  However in counselling the client has autonomy and the therapist follows the client.   The Ethical Bodies are very clear on their position towards dual roles.  They must be limited to avoid harm to the end user, be that the client or the supervisee.  

The problem is we can not see far enough head to anticipate the impact of such a relationship.

Some ethical bodies advise as soon as another relationship develops the work must stop being charged for and a therpeutic ending must be the priority to prevent any further emotional or financial abuse occuring.