About Juliana

Juliana Hopkins

I am a Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist. I have experience of working with diverse issues in

  • GP practices
  • universities
  • private practice
  • schools
  • volunteer agencies

Being accredited by the BACP means that

  • I abide by their code of ethics
  • undergo regular supervision
  • continue to add to my knowledge
  • keep my training up to date.

 

The majority of my counselling experience has been at GP practices based in Plymouth and south-west Devon, as well as in Private Practice. I have also worked in schools and universities counselling students.

I am currently one of the lecturers on the degree course in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Marjon University. I joined the programme 2018 just as the degree was about to start its first academic year. This meant writing lectures from scratch, creating content on theory, research and practice. I’ve loved the teaching and the relationship with the students and staff. I appreciate how much I’ve learnt from teaching, and how this enhances my practice as well as how practice supports my teaching. I particularly like the philosophy of the course, and will share some of that with you now to give you a flavour of what I believe in…

“…the course is underpinned by a shared philosophy relating to achieving transformation through a pluralistic, relational approach founded on the core conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence. In essence, the importance of establishing a strong relationship between the counsellor and client is the foundation of how we teach students to counsel, independent of the theories they apply, the goals they set with clients, and the intervention methods they use. As relationships with others start with relationships with the self, we believe in fostering self-awareness to promote the evolved levels of personal development necessary for a helping professional. We also believe that each client is unique, with different needs from therapy; our pluralistic approach therefore provides a framework for practitioners to integrate a variety of understandings and methods into their practice.”

I have been a founder director of Counsellors South West, set up by a small and dedicated group of existing primary care counsellors which has grown to cover the Teignbridge, South Hams, Tavistock and West Devon areas. It was a privilege to fight for Counselling’s place in Primary Care, helping commissioners understand the value of counselling along-side the more medical model offered by the IAPT programme.

A little bit more..

I started my counselling training in 1998. Before that I was a primary school teacher working in Plymouth and Bere Alson.

While I loved many aspects of my teaching career, I also felt that working in primary schools was not something I wanted to do forever. I started the counselling training while I was teaching and knew instantly that I had found my vocation.

Before teaching I lived in France from 1988 to 1997. During this time I held various positions as a bilingual secretary for festivals and conferences that take place in Cannes; I taught English as a foreign language; I also cooked on classic sailing yachts, research vessels and cargo ships around Europe, as well as across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

Most of my time these days is spent with my passions – my family, close friends, walking the dogs, stopping for a cup of tea, Yoga, reading, counselling and teaching.

Below you will find a video of me talking about teaching Eastern and Western psychology to yoga teachers for the Devon School of Yoga.