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'It is important to experience personally what you wish to adopt professionally.
When you have discovered this process to be healing for yourself,
you are ready to take the next step...'
-Natalie Rogers
Meet Maria
Some things it might be helpful to know about my
untangled becoming;
I am;
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Neurodivergent- receiving multiple late-life diagnoses'.
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A third-culture kid—born on the Wirral, I grew up in Australia, and I now live in Manchester, UK.
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The mother of 5- adult children.
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A home educator- for 25 years until my kids
wanted to access institutional education.
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A cat and dog mum.
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A bereavement volunteer- with Cruse Bereavement for the past 3 years.
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​Trained- as a primary school teacher.
I have lived experience of;
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Living undiagnosed and misdiagnosed and all the implications that brings.
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Raising undiagnosed children.
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Bereavement, grief and loss.
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Spiritual and religious abuse.
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Surviving trauma.
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Home education, alternate education and autonomous education.
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Life transitions.
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An emptying nest-children leaving home.
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Contemplating the existential (e.g. mortality)
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Perimenopause.
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Using creative expression as a way of processing my emotions.
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Professional Training;
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Edge Hill University-MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy- Contemporary and Creative Approaches.​
Keele University-MSc Post Graduate Credits (First year of the MSc) Counselling and Psychotherapy.
​ Keele University-Graduate certificate in Counselling.
​ The Manchester College-ABC Counselling Skills Level 3.
The Manchester College-ABC Counselling Concepts Level 2.
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​ Charles Sturt University (Australia)-Diploma of Teaching (Primary).​
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Professional membership;
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I work ethically and in line with my personal values.
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Professionally, I am committed to the professional guidelines provided by the BACP.
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I am an individual member of the BACP awaiting my registered membership status.
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BACP individual member number- 00926112
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My insurance is through Holistic.
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I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office
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Other training and experience-
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Foundation bereavement training-Cruse
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Bereavement Support Online and Telephone- Cruse
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Bereavement Safeguarding level 3/4- Cruse.
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Bereavement Self-care- Cruse.
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Bereavement Working with trauma- Cruse.
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Bereavement Additional suicide training- Cruse.
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Bereavement & Neurodiversity (ADHD)- Cruse & ADHD Foundation.
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Bereavement group training- Cruse.
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Bereavement supervision training- Cruse.
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Supporting bereaved children & young people-Child
bereavement UK
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Counselling with Children and Young People Training-Workshop with Claudia Aldersley, Parenting2000.
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Minecraft in therapy- level 1 &2 with Ellie Finch.
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Minecraft in therapy-Using Digital Sandtrays in Online and In-Person Therapy
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Focusing Level One- with Susan Jordan
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The Inside of Autism- Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate
(6-week course).
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Counselling Online (Open University)
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Trauma, Neurodiversity and Children and Young People -
Workshop with Rachael Klug
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Life After Trauma: Reframing, Rewiring, Renewing Your Nervous System- Workshop with Kate Williams
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Working With Trauma, Somatic-Based Interventions to Move Clients From Surviving to Thriving- Dr Arielle Schwartz, Pesi UK.
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Adult Mental Health Aware Half Day- Cruse and MHFA England
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7 ways not to exclude LGBTQ+ clients from therapy- Chloe
Foster
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LGBTQ+ Pronouns, 5 top tips- Chloe Foster.
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Uncertainty: An existential perspective: Ernesto Spinelli.​
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Becoming a psychotherapist
In the years before 2018 I found myself experiencing a season of grieving. I had been looking ahead and saw that my life as a home educator would one day end, and my children would fly the nest, I began asking myself questions about the future, my purpose and life's meaning.
While grief is grief, and there is no pressure for it be anything other than that, for me this grieving process turned out to be transformational.
As I began to reflect on my life, I recognised that I had spent my time;
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Encouraging autonomy and agency.
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Facilitating growthful experiences for others.
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Committed to my self-development, challenging my beliefs and I was dedicated to personal growth.
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With this experience in mind I dipped my toe into a level 2 person-centred counselling course at a local college. I stayed for the level 3 and then applied (and went) to Keele University to study person-centred counselling and psychotherapy.
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During lock-down I underwent what can only be described as an un-masking process, using creative expression to make sense of what I was thinking and feeling.
When the MSc began in the September, I found I could not squeeze myself back into institutional ways of thinking and working. I felt like my brain had hit a brick wall and I couldn't make it work the way it did before. A savvy and supportive tutor recognised something was amiss, having worked with me the year before.
While encouraging and accepting of who I was and my new way of creatively processing theory within my essays, they gently suggested a visit to Student Learning.
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This visit later led to multiple neurodivergent diagnosis' and a change in course. I decided during my first year that working creatively had become so important to me, that I could not ignore how it may be helpful to future clients also.
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I applied and graduated from Edge Hill University with
an MSc in Contemporary and Creative Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy.
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Natalie Rogers says;
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'It is important to experience personally what you wish to adopt professionally. When you have discovered this process to be healing for yourself, you are ready to take the next step...' (Rogers, 1993: 13).
This personal journey has deeply influenced my professional practice.
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