I am an Oxford based couples’ counsellor and individual therapist who recently took the decision to expand my career and qualify as a wedding celebrant. The two actually go together pretty well.
As well as running my own private counselling practice, I trained and worked for Relate for eight years and am currently offering therapy through employee assistance programmes.
One of the requirements of counselling is that you continue to learn. I was on the verge of signing up for a new diploma course when I decided I wanted to do something totally new – and that I actually wanted to incorporate something more joyful and fun into my life.
I decided to become a celebrant.
I have had a varied career, working as a journalist on regional and daily newspapers, a short spell in teaching and then running my own PR consultancy for 23 years. My clients were predominantly pharmaceutical companies, media relations focused but then evolving into medical education and opinion leader development.
I am a good listener, writer and communicator. Words matter to me: spoken or written. Poor communication or lack of it invariably arises within couples’ counselling.
This is why I believe it can be helpful for couples to talk about their relationship in a safe space before getting married - with a view to making their relationship healthier, resilient and creating a shared and joyful vision of their life together.
