Dr.Jan Hawkins

About

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 trauma 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 trauma. 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 and adult trauma. The experience of trauma, complex trauma, and continuing trauma bring are at the centre of much of Jan's theraputic work. 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! Jan has been leading groups on pilgrimage in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and visited other parts of Isarael, so has first hand knowledge of the occupation from these areas and from the people she has met along the way. Bearing witness to what has been happening through those years, supporting an orphanage in Bethany and a Rehabilitation Hospital in Bethlehem and learning form the Palestinian people has been an important pull to continue to bear witness. I have continued to develop my understanding through reading and also through engaging with SAND presentations and discussions.

My approach seeks to meet indiviudals where they are, allowing the client to lead at their own pace. I am committed to providing support where I can for those suffering pre and during the currrent genocide, understanding from the outside the intergenerational trauma, the trauma of occupation and the continuing trauma in a destroyed and unsafe place with limits on every basic need. My prayers have been for the people of Palestine for the years that I have been been bringing groups to Jerusalem, the West Bank, and other areas in Israel. I have been witnessing what has been happening to the people of Palestine during the years of relative safety. If I didn't have to earn a living, I would be there as volunteer, but I can offer some limited spaces to support those who continue to suffer, and a witness to the endurance and post traumatic growth possible if and when real peace comes.

Age Groups

Practice Approaches