Hi there, I’m Paula.

I started my working life as a chef. During that time, I began volunteering, first with a befriending charity and then as a welfare rights worker.

I quickly found my place in the voluntary sector and decided to study Community Education.

For most of my working life, I’ve worked in the third sector, doing community work, youth work, and caring for young people in residential settings.

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My background

While bringing up my family, I stayed involved in local voluntary organisations.

I worked at the Borders General Hospital as part of the spiritual care team, supporting patients of all beliefs and none. I later became a trustee of the Chaplaincy Centre.

For a time, I saw myself becoming a spiritual care worker, but most staff were ordained ministers and I didn’t feel a pull in that direction.

After moving to Fife, I worked in a community bakery and became involved in my local Green Party branch.

I later became branch co-convenor just after the 2014 referendum, when we were a wee party with an even smaller branch. Membership grew from around 60 folk to nearly 700.

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My path into counselling

Around that time, I started studying with the Open University and found counselling training locally.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now I work for myself as a therapist, and I genuinely love the work I do.

I bring all of this experience into my practice and offer a space where people can talk things through in their own way and at their own pace.

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Training and qualifications

I am trained in person-centred counselling and psychotherapy, and I am a Counsellor Member of COSCA (Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland).

Qualifications:

• Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy DipHE, University of the Highlands and Islands
• COSCA Skills Certificate in Counselling, Borders College
• CertHE in Health and Social Care, The Open University

I work within the COSCA ethical framework and receive regular supervision from an external supervisor.

I am committed to ongoing professional development to continue developing my practice.

This supports me in offering a safe, ethical and supportive space for the people I work with.

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Reflection

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, ‘Soften the orange a bit on the right-hand corner.’ I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”

Carl R. Rogers, A Way of Being

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