Bill’s Professional Journey
The most important person in our work is you.
Bearing that in mind, I describe something of my professional journey here in order to give you some idea of the breadth and depth of possibilities in our work.
More than forty years ago, I began an intensive search to find answers to the essential question:
‘How can we live our lives well?’
That search led me to the work of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His understanding transformed my experience of life and ignited in me a fierce passion to help others.
I left my job as a medical biochemist and began the long training to be a clinical psychologist.
Many further answers emerged, my life improved significantly, and I went on to establish busy private practices in Cape Town and later in Harley Street, London
Clinical psychology certainly had much to offer but something still felt incomplete. I wanted to deepen my understanding of the treatment of emotional and spiritual difficulties and so I did this by training in several specialised forms of psychotherapy:
Transpersonal Psychotherapy (a therapeutic approach that integrates a spiritual perspective)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Matrix Reimprinting
Many more gems were unearthed but I knew that the search was far from over.
Part of the problem was that clinical psychology and most forms of psychotherapy focus on mental illness.
I wanted a much broader focus that focused on a sense of well-being.
Coaching was one of those professions that had a more positive approach, and it became a valuable part of my work.
But, even with all of this, I still felt that my understanding was far from complete, and so my search for a deeper understanding continued.
Precipitated by a retreat with Ram Dass and teachings by the Dalai Lama in London, I began to immerse myself in both Western and Eastern spiritual traditions. I devoured work by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Adyashanti, Loch Kelly, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Stephan Bodian, John J. Predergast and many others. I went on retreats, including those with Atum O’Kane (a Sufi Master), Sogyal Rinpoche and Eckhart Tolle, and eventually uncovered the invaluable realisation that: within each of us lies a profound presence that is open, peaceful, loving, wise and fundamentally content.
In the late 1990s, I also developed a fascination with the therapeutic effects of nature and a curiosity about indigenous shamanic traditions. This led me to train as a Vision Quest Guide in the USA and later as a Doctor of Traditional African Medicine in Botswana, an African shamanic tradition.
Although I no longer practice in a traditional manner, these experiences enriched my approach enormously.
Through them I learned:
The profound healing power of nature
The vital importance of being mindful of the body and the felt-sense in the body
An acute awareness of subtle energy
Numerous tools to ground, balance and connect with various forms of subtle energy
How to access intuitive guidance through the body
The importance of ritual
And, much else besides
Over the last twenty years, I have continued to explore widely, including:
IFS (Internal Family Systems, a highly effective method of working with parts of our psyche)
Polyvagal Theory and its implications (understanding fight, flight, freeze, fawn, collapse responses as well as inducing a sense of well-being and safety through vagus nerve stimulation)
Attachment Theory
Radical acceptance and Self-compassion
Brain asymmetry (Iain McGilchrist)
Breathwork
Bön, the traditional spiritual and shamanic practice of Tibet
Meditation
Mindfulness
Non-dual awareness (Adyashanti, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Rupert Spira, Stephan Bodian, John J. Prendergast, and others)
And, most importantly, the practical integration of all of this in everyday life.
I am so grateful to see the work bearing fruit with the people that I work with.
My hope is that it may be of benefit to you, too.