Janet Branscombe MA PGCE BA
After gaining a BA (Fine art) at Cardiff I travelled around Africa and lived in Tanzania for five years before returning to the UK with my young family to train as a teacher of Art and Design.
Whilst teaching in a secondary school I became very aware of the need for extra support shown by many students. I started counselling training in order to better support students through my teaching role and went on to qualify as an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist. I deeply love teaching and being in the role of facilitating a student’s development and exploration of their unique creativity and self expression. Psychotherapy, along with the practice and teaching of yoga, has become a natural extension and deepening of that process.
Whilst teaching in a secondary school I became very aware of the need for extra support shown by many students. I started counselling training in order to better support students through my teaching role and went on to qualify as an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist. I deeply love teaching and being in the role of facilitating a student’s development and exploration of their unique creativity and self expression. Psychotherapy, along with the practice and teaching of yoga, has become a natural extension and deepening of that process.
Relationship
In my experience we live, learn and define ourselves according to the relationships we have and have had in the past. These also affect how we relate to ourselves. Teaching and learning, is a two way process, as is the therapeutic relationship. Each person being open to the possibility of being affected, moved and changed in someway by the other. However the teacher and therapist is responsible for the professional boundaries and working framework where the needs of the student and client is paramount.
As a teacher and therapist I do not set myself up as an expert who would tell you what to do but as a facilitator, and guide who can attend, listen, and encourage you to develop your curiosity about yourself and the world and form your own view about how you would like to proceed.
Being a teacher and therapist is less about the imparting and accumulation of knowledge (though it can be very useful), and it is certainly not about getting it right or wrong, but more about developing curiosity , understanding and greater self awareness. It is an ongoing, emerging process, not a striving for a perfect answer, result or product.
My ongoing creative practice supports my curiosity, exploration and understanding of the world and my place in it. This includes my role as a mother, daughter, partner and teacher, facilitator and psychotherapist. I used to be daunted by a blank piece of paper but now it is a playground on which to delight in the emerging image, a dance and dialogue between me and the mark on the page (not to say that is is not a struggle sometimes). I would love for you to join me in that special place where play and imagination gives an insight into our truest selves that can not be defined by labels and external expectations.