Jamie Johnstone

Available: Monday (afternoon & evening), Wednesday & Friday (afternoon). Online.

Rate: €50

My name is Jamie Johnstone. Currently I am undertaking my pre-accreditation with APCP (Association of Professional Counsellors & Psychotherapists in Ireland). My journey of counselling began not in the counsellor’s chair, but in the clients. Finding out I was neurodiverse at the age of 16 led me down the path of seeking support from counselling and it made a world of difference for me. After this I wanted to help others as my own counsellor had helped me.

In my time studying to be a counsellor I learned just as much about myself as I did the coursework. Being neurodiverse is a part of who I am and now I know it’s a part of myself to understand and celebrate. Through my placement in college and pre-accreditation after that, I’ve worked with all kinds of people over a number of issues, with each one a new opportunity to learn about the work I was undertaking as well as myself. I cannot state the privilege that it is to work with clients and to work with wonderful and empathic people committed to helping others. The process of seeing a client gradually make progress over time and how they learn about themselves and how to handle the issues they’re dealing with is the single most rewarding part of this line of work.

I have a particular fondness for the humanistic approach to counselling and bring its core conditions of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard into every session. Even when other techniques or approaches are needed, I try to bring a baseline of the humanistic approach in order to help the client feel secure and understood in every session. I believe everybody deserves to be their authentic self and that sometimes, we all need a little bit of help figuring out how to do that or what it looks like for us. Be it neurodiverse people or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, everyone deserves a safe space and a chance to speak openly about anything that may be on their mind. Theres never any shame in struggling with an issue and that first step towards getting help is always something to be commended.