Prior to having children, I worked as an Occupational Therapist in Oxford NHS Hospitals. In that context I worked one to one with patients, in collaboration with physios, doctors and social workers to create tailor made rehabilitation to help get a client home after a stroke, heart attack, change in mental health, injury, life limiting diagnosis, or operation. The aim was to enable independence where possible, with the right level of support for that individual.

 

After suffering from burnout at work,  I stopped working in the NHS and set up as a freelance music and mosaic teacher, with more flexible hours. I also wanted to be more emotionally available to my two sons in their early years. I still continue to work with budding musicians and artists, giving them skills to create their own original work, and realise their creative potential. This is incredibly rewarding.

 

I continue to compose and perform on the cello, and mosaic, and find this transformational for my sense of wellbeing.

​

When my kids become more independent teenagers, I was able to retrain, to find a new, fulfilling purpose.

​

First I studied CBT, and through that process, realised I wanted to help people with the underlying trauma behind their symptoms. I also wanted to find a method that empowered people to find their own compassion for themselves and become their own therapists.

 

Training in IFS has been an exciting process of uncovering a method that fitted with my own gut feelings about how to help ourselves heal, and navigate our own inner worlds.​ IFS has also validated my experience of the spiritual elements in various traditions including Buddhism.

 

In the last four years I have been co-hosting healing groups and running retreats with my colleagues Jackie Singer and Fiona Hughes, as part of Sharon McErlane’s NetofLight.org

​

The IFS concept of the SELF very much links in with what we find in ourselves when meditating or doing healing work. That indestructible compassionate nature we sometimes un-knowingly have at our core is similar to what Buddhists call "Buddha Nature".

 

We aim to tap into each person's Self in the IFS process. Once other younger parts within us have been fully heard and witnessed, they can be willing to step back and this gives the Self room to emerge. 

 

The Self has huge potential to heal both ourselves and others. When this part of ourselves is regularly in the driving seat we start to be able to respond to life more consciously, less reactively, and with increased self compassion. In this mindset, we can attract more positive situations, and have the means to reach our true potential.​

 

Some of the IFS work I've done recently has enabled clients to connect to the spiritual level and discover the huge support that is available to them for the first time. After six sessions with me, a client said:

​

IFS is a phenomenal, deeply transformative experience

and it has been a real gift to be able to take this journey with Josie.

Her calm, sensitivity, and skill have allowed me to explore and reevaluate

difficult memories and patterns in a safe and compassionate environment.

This profound healing has been genuinely life-changing.

​

I have been practicing IFS for over two years, with a number of different clients with diverse needs including ADHD, ASD, chronic health conditions, bi-polar, anxiety and depression (See my feedback page) and I continue to build on my training.

​

I have ongoing supervision for my work.

 

IFS-informed coaching has been the most rewarding chapter in my career path. I'm thrilled to have found a therapeutic modality that brings together all my experience to date.

​