“Jamie put me at ease right away and has given me the space to start exploring my emotional responses. I really feared talking about how I was feeling but now really look forward to our sessions.”
I think that it is really powerful when we feel heard and understood. When we feel like someone is trying to get who we are and where we’re coming from.
My desire to listen, properly, is based on my years of working with people who have gone unheard by others and who don't want to ignore themselves and the life they want any more. I think things can really change when we understand more about ourselves and what drives us to do the things we do.
I love a metaphor and the best one I have come up with so far about the type of therapy that I do is that in our sessions, I'm trying really hard to be the best travel companion in a car that you are driving.
I've taken the car to get valeted just before the journey, I've brought all the best snacks and I've lined up the best playlist for us to listen to - I'm doing everything that I can to make it comfortable for you to hold onto the wheel and take us where we're going. I don't have any expectation about the destination, the speed we're going at or what route we take to get there. If it's dark, we'll put the lights on together; if the road is tight, we'll hold our breath as we pass another car together; and if we end up lost, we'll be lost together.
The thing I like best about being a person-centred counsellor is that I don't feel the need to do the stuff that friends, family and colleagues can end up doing. I won't give advice, ask "have you tried doing this..?" or try to push you to take a particular course of action. The stuff that when we hear it, can leave us going: “Great, now I have to work out how to respond to this input that hasn't made me feel better without also feeling rude, dismissive or ungrateful.”
I work to only one assumption - that you really do know what is best for you.
I want you to have a caring, non-judgmental and supportive space to say your thing - because I believe that's the starting point for change.
“Jamie is kind, non judgemental and supportive. I’ve had previous therapists who were very neutral and passive - which I understand but it can feel frustrating. I like that Jamie responds and validates my feelings, and even expresses his own opinion, and at the same time he always checks in with me that his observations are accurate. (They are!)”
My practice as a therapist is underpinned by a COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills and the Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy that I have received, with Merit, from the University of Strathclyde. It is also informed by my degree in Politics and Social Policy from the University of the West of Scotland, where I thought deeply about how the social pressures that come from our laws, our government policies and our media can leave us feeling judged, shamed and isolated from the people around us.
I grew up in a single parent household, where even though my mum worked all the hours she could, we still struggled financially. My primary school was not invested in and there was no college or university nearby. My high school teachers were banned from talking to me about being gay. And the whole time, I was supposed to think that this was all my shame to carry.
That’s why I think that therapy and having space to explore yourself and how you want to be in the world is an important part of creating a better world.
I am an accredited therapist with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and I’ve delivered over 1,000 counselling sessions.
Sessions are online via Google Meet or in person at my therapy room in Paisley. Sessions last for an hour, cost £50 and there’s no limit on the amount of time we can work for. You can book a session here.
“Jamie has been excellent, we’ve been speaking for almost a month now and I feel really comfortable speaking to him, he offers some great insights and different angles to thinking, i look forward to our sessions and would highly recommend him.”
