Dr John Rowan in Private Practice

PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND COUNSELLOR
Group work was my first love, starting in 1969, but I took up one-to-one work in 1980. My orientation is basically humanistic, but I have done so much work with psychoanalytic therapists that I am very familiar with those ideas and methods as well – particularly the British Middle School. My interest in spirituality and the transpersonal has increased as my own psychospiritual development has moved further on. Ken Wilber has helped to form my ideas about this and I have adapted his All Quadrants All Levels approach for use in psychotherapy.

I have meditated every morning since early 1982. I now work at transpersonal levels as appropriate, as well as at the more familiar authentic and existential level. Although I have access to a number of useful techniques, I regard the healing therapeutic relationship as much more important than any of them.
• My practice is normally long-term, but I have also done short-term work, and have no reservations about doing it. Obviously with long-term work the relationship is particularly important.
• I see people in a dedicated consulting room in my home. The normal session is one hour, and the first session is free, to encourage prospective clients to shop around.
• The train comes to Chingford Station. This is ten or fifteen minutes walk from the house.
• My fees are in line with current practice, and I always have two clients on a low-cost basis.
• I can often offer an emergency session at short notice.
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COUPLE COUNSELLING AND THERAPY
Couple counselling has always been one of my specialities, and I belong to the Couples Counselling Network (see website details in the links section) which specialises in this. I am able to see both sides and avoid choosing one side against the other. My aim is to explore the whole relationship in all its aspects so that good choices can be made as to whether to stay together or split apart.
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SUPERVISION
I have been supervising students since 1978, counsellors and psychotherapists since 1981 and coaches since 1992. People say that I am:
• encouraging rather than discouraging,
• authentic rather than role-bound, and
• engaged rather than distant.

I like to use tape-recordings, but do not insist on them. Process notes are the next best thing. I usually see people individually for an hour once a fortnight, as this fits the requirements of most accrediting bodies. Sometimes it is possible to set up a group of two or three people, and there are advantages in doing this. Using an integrative approach, I encourage people who are not yet accredited to move toward accreditation either as a counsellor or as a psychotherapist.

I come from a humanistic and transpersonal background, and was trained in Primal Integration by Dr William Swartley. My involvement with psychoanalysts in training institutes over a period of twenty years means that I also understand and can work with issues such as transference, countertransference, projective identification and resistance. I aim at an optimal balance between support and confrontation, and pay attention to ethical questions as well as issues of professional practice. There will be an interview where we shall check out our suitability for one another. I also do videotape supervision for people in remote parts.
Telephone supervision is something I have done for several different people, and find it quite effective. So far I have not done supervision by email.
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LIFE COACHING
Dr Rowan is a member of the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology, having attended the inaugural event in December 2004. He has been involved in individual and group coaching since 1985, and is a member of the Association for Coaching.

His approach is closely adjusted to the needs of the client, and he does not have a favourite package. Each person gets individual treatment, using a wide variety of helps. Coaching can be done on the telephone, though it is wise to have a face to face meeting to set this up and agree on the conditions.

Recently he has devoted more attention to the transpersonal aspect of coaching, using such approaches as the Ken Wilber model of the four quadrants each with a set of levels, the Peter Senge U-theory of descending into deeper levels of the psyche and coming back up again, the John Whitmore idea of using psychosynthesis methods such as imagery, the Pat Williams emphasis on far vision, the sacred self, creativity and openness, and the use of coaching koans, as well as his own work on the dialogical self, personification and I-positions. This means that even the more experienced and sophisticated client is met on a level which does justice to the whole person.

“One thing that comes out from all these transpersonal approaches is the marvel of creativity. I have been working on creativity since 1972, and have acquired an enormous respect for the way in which it is in everybody and just needs to be acknowledged and called upon. It can revolutionise a person’s estimate of what is possible. And we now know how to call upon it and engage with it. This is why I have enjoyed working with so many creative people over the years. Most people ignore, downgrade or simply do not recognise their own creativity, but we now know how to help it to emerge.”
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SPIRITUAL MENTORING
More and more people are interested today in some form of spiritual practice, and often get a bit lost in the whole plethora of offerings in that field these days. I deploy the maps of Ken Wilber, which I have been using for over twenty years, to help to locate each person and therefore see where they need to go next. Also it is often useful to separate out which pieces of the personal jigsaw belong where, so that more sense can be made of past history and earlier discoveries. It can also help to speak to someone who understands about periods of spiritual dryness and the like.
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