As I read the final sentence of the chapter in the book of my life called ‘2011,’ I paused for a while to reflect on everything I’d experienced and learned over the past twelve months. It was an interesting chapter of my life, filled (over-filled at times!) with learning, discoveries and interesting clients. During the chapter I became a qualified Practitioner of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and achieved a Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy. Both of these training courses were fantastic experiences and I learned many more clinical skills as well as the ongoing personal development that therapeutic learning entails. My thinking has changed in many ways, for the better, and in ways that will benefit both my clinical practice with clients and my personal life experience.
Alongside these training courses, I continued to work on my PhD. This also has broadened my knowledge of both my subject and my Self. As a result of the research topic being born out of personal experience, a great deal of the academic literature that I’ve read has touched me, unexpectedly at times, at a deep personal level. This process hasn’t always been an easy one as I’ve had to revisit painful experiences and feelings of my past, but ultimately, I knew that out of that pain would emerge deeper and clearer understandings of both my topic and myself. And again, this enhances me on an academic level, a therapeutic level and the personal.Reflecting on these learnings as I write this now is helping me realise just how much I did learn last year on all kinds of levels and how much I grew and developed during the journey I took during 2011.
Another important source of learning, this time on the personal level was a relationship with someone who didn’t stay in my life long, but who did make a big impression whilst they were there. Definitely one of those people sent to me from which I had lessons to learn. An intense relationship on many levels and one which made me question some of my personal beliefs and helped me recognise some of the things I need, and want, to have in my life.
And I was lucky to have consistency throughout the entire chapter of unquestioned love and support from family and friends. 2011 brought a number of new people into my life, especially through my NLP and Hypnotherapy training and without a doubt, all of those people with who I shared some amazing experiences, have left their mark on me. Their names are written in my book for always.
My counselling practice continued to grow steadily throughout the year and I was fortunate to experience my most successful year to date. And I hope that that continues as I expand my therapy to include NLP and Hypnotherapy. The seeds were also sewn for exciting new workshops around Body Image which I’m developing with a good friend and colleague. We’re piloting these workshops in a number of schools later this month and I’m looking forward to where these workshops might just lead …
So all in all, the chapter called 2011 was a good one in my book. It wasn’t always a comfortable or easy read but it was a very defining one, and it did have a good few pages of fun and laughter in it too!
So I’m left here on 1st January 2012 beginning the early pages of this brand new chapter and looking forward with excited anticipation to meeting the people I’ve yet to meet and the experiences I’ve yet to have, the learnings I’ve yet to learn and the achievements I’ve yet to make.
From here, 2012 seems like it just might be a fun, exciting and gratifying read …
