Julie Elliot
Name: Julie Elliot
Course: BA Person-Centred Counselling and the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
My journey since I graduated
After graduating from Warwick in the Summer of 2022, I created a private practice offering person-centred therapy online, by telephone or in person.
The business grew steadily and since January 2023, my practice has been full!
After noticing how difficult it was to rent a suitable therapy room, I decided to diversify the business and planning is in place to refurbish and rent out a suite of therapy rooms in my town. If successful, these rooms will be offered for long-term and short-term rent with a view to creating a thriving therapeutic community under one roof, hopefully supporting therapists with their business start-ups.
I have also enjoyed being a member of various person-centred community groups. In August 2022, I became a trustee for the Person-centred Association (tPCA). I facilitate a tPCA special interest group for people who wish to practice non-pathologising therapy and I am a member of a non-pathologising supervisee group.
I have enjoyed continuing to develop a project with my fellow alumni Joni Pope, that was funded by the Warwick University Enterprise team in 2022. It is called the Warwick Alumni Person-centred Hub. This is an online forum where Warwick Alumni counsellors and psychotherapists who have an interest in the person-centred approach can engage in discussion of the person-centred approach, share relevant articles and links to resources and arrange peer supervision.
How has my career changed since I started the course
When I started the counselling degree course in 2018, I was a teaching assistant working in a primary school. During my first year at Warwick, as a requirement of the course, I started a work-based learning placement with a local charity. After a few months, I was delighted to be offered an admin job there and later on was employed as a counsellor.
During my time at the charity, I received excellent additional training to work with people who had experienced trauma and I built up over 400 hours of clinically supervised practice before I qualified. I was closely supervised whilst working with clients experiencing a vast range of challenges such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicidal ideation. The charity offered free professional 1 to 1 supervision, quarterly CPD (continuous professional development) and a fantastic safeguarding team with an open door policy, ensuring that I never felt alone with a client issue.
My degree course was Person-centred therapy and the Psychotherapeutic Relationship (now BA Counselling and the Psychotherapeutic Relationship) and I found the person-centred way of being to be a powerful way of working with people who had experienced trauma and neglect. I think it was very useful that the tutors on the course were all highly experienced therapists and so the lectures, whilst being deeply rooted in the theoretical were accompanied with practical experiential and client focussed perspectives.
One thing that I had not bargained for was the self-development process. For me, this was hugely transformational. Over a four-year period, through encounter groups, community groups, journaling and personal therapy, I was encouraged to get to know myself in a way that I had not experienced before. It was illuminating to say the least. An essential part of becoming a therapist is knowing yourself, being aware of your own blind spots, biases and preconceived ideas, and though this was very tough at times, it provided lots of room for deep reflection and growth. I think the biggest gift of all was becoming aware of our own potentiality and this is what has given me the faith in myself to build a business.
How did I end up studying the course and what I enjoyed the most
I decided to study at Warwick because I had really enjoyed the Level 2 Introduction to Counselling course that they offer. Completing this course built my confidence and also gave me the opportunity to consider which modality I would prefer to study in.
The degree course offered me the opportunity to study and work at the same time. Also, I was confident that it would increase my employment opportunities.
One of the most obvious pull factors was the prestige of studying at Warwick due to its world class reputation for innovation and academic prowess and I am sure that this has helped me in my business ventures. However, I think the warmth, expertise and hard work of the teaching and the support staff was what made Warwick an outstanding place to study.
The course taught me how to value myself and others. The essence of the course was about working with people so that they could reach their full potential, and along the way, all students were invited to reach theirs.
I loved that at Warwick, from the start of the course, we were introduced to lots of opportunities to develop study skills and also to take care of our wellbeing. I tapped in to tutorials focussed on improving my essay writing, building study skills and even joined a group that offered lunch time mindfulness!
As previously mentioned, I applied to the enterprise department for funds and followed some of their useful tutorials and met with some excellent mentors. I even presented my research at an international student conference! Honestly, at the age of 50 years old, I was not expecting these things to happen to this busy Mother of two young children, but there is something about the development process on the course that encouraged me to have a go! The departments across the campus such as in the library, IT support, study support and enterprise team all felt inherently person-centred.
And I miss the most about Warwick's...
Lecturers, students, encounter time, coffee breaks, visiting lecturers, learning and developing and supporting others along the way. Even essay writing!
If I could, I would go back in an absolute heartbeat!