What is your motivation for being a listener? To give people the space to feel seen, heard, noticed and witnessed. Ultimately to help clients help themselves to achieve what their desired goal. How did you choose this profession? I chose to become a counsellor through a culmination of personal history and a passion for the therapeutic relationship. I was inspired by help I received and I wanted to help facilitate that for clients. What is your belief on how and why a ‘professional’ can help others? This is a two part answer. A professional needs certain intrinsic qualities that make them a good helper - like a natural inclination towards empathy, care, support, warmth, analysis etc mixed with knowledge about the human experience and psychological/therapeutic theories. These occur simultaneously with the clients presence, knowledge about themselves and desire to achieve whatever they come to therapy for. The professional doesn’t just ‘help’ on their own; it’s a collaboration and relationship where the professional acts as a facilitator. They work collaboratively with the client, guiding and supporting them to achieve what they want out of the therapy - whilst respecting their autonomy and input. How do you mitigate the perceived power dynamic between client and therapist? Honest communication and honest humanness. From the outset of the relationship I’d make it clear that whilst I have this knowledge, the client is the expert in the themselves and that is the most important thing. I would also have a conversation that sometimes the therapist can get it wrong and this is something that I will take responsibility for and we will navigate together. How would you communicate personal humility to others? Being slow and gentle in the interaction and taking a big picture view of our human experience. I guess tangibly this looks like actively listening, validating their experience, not being defensive if something is brought forward, taking responsibility, self-reflection, continuous acknowledgement of humanness and that I don’t know everything, nor do I claim to, showing gratitude, asking for support from relevant people and staying continuously grounded. How do you communicate/behave in a person-centred style? By actively listening, respecting, being with, empathising, being flexible and adaptable and continuously reminding the client that that are the experts in their own experience and we are working together to bring them back to that. What is your process for ensuring duty of care; do no harm, consider all disadvantages to the client, advocate as needed only…etc? (I.e. how do we know if we are doing too much or not enough) As a student therapist, I will utilise my supervisor as much as I need. I also think this requires deeply connecting with the therapeutic experience and the client and honing your intuition - and on a tangible level, having honest communication about this- is the therapy going in the direction that the client wants it to go? Also getting really clear about what we can achieve together, maybe setting goals and having realistic expectations? And then on the other side - if my client is at risk, make some safe plans and put the necessary structures in place to keep the client safe.