The Return

This is a very long overdue update after a year absence. 

Today marks the end of a long journey: 10 years of postgraduate studies in psychology and counselling training, which took me to the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology via the US and India.

If you are following me or are working with me, you will know that I do not subscribe to the mass market paradigm of communication, marketing and other selling techniques. My whole journey, and the way I choose to work today, is to be and support others in being authentically ourselves. This might mean to do your own thing, whilst still adhering to ethical guidelines and boundaries.

As many philosophers,poets and authors have said before me, as D.H. Lawrence perhaps best encapsulates it:

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you have got to say, and say it hot.” 

And so I took a break from Your Alchemists since my last email almost a year ago whilst I focused on my Doctorate, clinical work and research project.

In that time I had the immense privilege of working at the Tavistock clinic as a psychodynamic therapist in training, where Freud, Melanie, Klein, Winnicott, Bowlby (founder of attachment theory), and so many others walked before me. I learnt so much about complex trauma and focused some of my research on it. More importantly I learnt how to be and not to be and what to do and what not to do in therapy thanks to my clients to whom I am immensely grateful and hold in my heart. I also continued to work with clients with Autism, really understanding neurodivergence and how to support clients with either ADHD/Autism or both, spending four years in total in that field.

My research focused on personal therapy having had over ten years of it myself on my journey and having experienced pretty much all the main schools – Cognitive Behavioural, Psychodynamic, Humanistic & person-centred and existential.

My research is about ‘Counselling psychologists’ experiences of personal therapy during dctoral training’. I will look forward to sharing my thesis with you, and the wider public, since it is a public document. This will be published once I have passed my Viva (for those of you who are not familiar with this – it is live in vivo presentation of your whole Doctoral work, not just the thesis, to academics and experts of your field before you are awarded the Doctorate). I hope it will illuminate and demystify therapy for both professionals and the general public. We are all human beings and our foremost experts on ourselves – not anyone external.

Today I work for the English National Health Service (NHS) in some of the largest hospitals in North East London, specifically supporting clients on wards who were admitted in A&E. 

I continue a very small private practice focusing on my own method and way of working which is best described (forgive the jargon but that’s the best way I found to call it!) ‘theoretically eclectic and pluralistic’. This means I am not just mixing and matching everything I have learnt. I do combine all I have learnt in my life including my training as a dancer/actress, followed by business and coaching, languages, meditation and yoga and most recently counselling and psychology.

However what distinguishes me and my method from others perhaps is that by virtue of being multi-disciplinarian, I am not ‘wedded’ to a particular discipline as holding any forms of truths. There are so many ways to heal and be well. This can happen through Art, sports, and/or therapy or something else. I hold a holistic and wider perspective having trained and practiced in the major psychotherapeutic schools and other disciplines (including somatic and my body for many decades). I believe this gives me the advantage of  being able to quickly hone into what might be most beneficial to a client moment by moment, in collaboration with the client of course, always. This can  save you years and sometimes decades of wasted time and money being stuck in repeating the same patterns.You do have to commit to weekly therapy – and not book the odd session here and there – and be open and ready to learn. Provided that this is something you are ready to do, I can guide you towards being the version of you you have always dreamt of being. 

I also was a regular client once, experiencing suffering, and was sold things over many years that were a waste of money and time. I am committed today in empowering others to be their gurus. That means you know what’s best for you and also I make no claims that this modality or the other is the best. What I have discovered is that all have something to offer but none are sufficient by themselves. I know as I was there once. So be mindful of anyone telling you otherwise.

Because I have studied 17 years in total, 10 of which have been solely in Psychology and Counselling (also holding a MSc in Psychology) and because I am trained, qualified and experienced in five different disciplines, my fees reflect this. I might not be accessible to everyone. However my commitment to giving back lies in working in the public service half of the time, as well as offering limited monthly slots on lower rates to those who feel compelled and committed to working with me but might not currently have those resources. If that is the case, email me.

My path has been a long one, riddled with early adversity and challenges, as is often the case for those who come from poverty, war, lower socio-economic classes without inherited wealth. Nothing predisposed me as a young 10 year old daughter of immigrants girl to have done what I have done, in another country and another language to my native ones, and be where I am today, about to qualify as a Doctor. However, what I can share is that you can be all you dream of being.

I am encapsulating my journey, which I believe is universal, in a forthcoming book too, so do keep in touch, and believe in yourself!

If you have any queries about working with me, do reach out using the connect page on my website here.

Warmly

Irena Grgona