Wen’s counselling practice
Home made sauerkraut and kombucha
Warre bee hive -European honey bees
Native bee hive – sugarbag bees
Counselling helps relationships –
Professional Memberships
Counselling helps relationships by providing you with a space to look at your emotions, feelings and behaviour within your relationships and with yourself. To ensure this is a professional service, I maintain continual ongoing professional training and development so I can offer you the best possible service.
I am a professional member of the Australian Counselling Association, joining in 2005. Therefore I follow the Association’s Code of Practice and Ethics. This association promotes research showing how counselling helps relationships and self esteem.
I have been a member of the Cancer Counselling Professionals, using my skills to counsel individuals, couples and families who were affected by all aspects of cancer.
Training as a professional counselling supervisor in 2013, I became a member of the ACA College of Supervisors. I supervise other counsellors and health care providers.
Counselling helps relationships –
Previous Training
Qualifying as a Counsellor in 1996, I trained in Person Centered Counselling at Strathclyde University, Scotland. Before this I trained in Gestalt therapy, and have extensive experience in body work. An important part of the task of the person-centered counsellor is to closely follow what the client is feeling and communicate this to them so the person can begin to understand more deeply what they are experiencing.
“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, ‘Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.’ I don’t try to control a sunset.” (Quote by Carl Rogers, founder of Person Centered Counselling.)
I completed Level 2 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy and use this in my therapy work with Couples. This method has been developed by John and Julie Gottman from over 40 years of working with thousands of couples. This form of counselling helps couple relationships.
Committed to my own professional development, I continually attend different training programs to improve my counselling skills. This is an essential element of my work counselling people and helping with their relationships.
Counselling helps relationships –
Influences
Deeply interested in healing and health from a young age, I qualified as a Registered Nurse at Westmead Hospital, NSW, in 1982. While I was training I fell in love with massage. Massaging my friends feet after a night of bush dancing let onto me using massage as an aid in nursing. For example on night shifts I often massaged patients to help put them to sleep before I offered medication.
Understanding different forms of health care.
I explored complimentary and Eastern traditions and trained in Chinese and Swedish massage and Shiatsu. Travelling extensively through SE Asia, India and Europe by bicycle, I learned various meditation and mindfulness techniques. Building on this foundation, I then trained with Professor JR Worsley (1923 – 2003) in England. He is credited with bringing Five Element Acupuncture to the West. Graduating as a Traditional Chinese Acupuncturist in 1988, I set up the Five Seasons Health Clinic in Glasgow. The 5 Element framework and Taoist principles still continue to influence my work.
Returning to Australia
I returned to the Central Coast of NSW in 2000 and set up in private practice. Broadening my understanding of how moods and relationships are influenced by food, gut health and exercise, I began exploring their influence on well being and self esteem. This knowledge added to how counselling helps relationships. Please ask me if you wish to know how to make kombucha, kefir, or fermented foods such as sauerkraut cheaply at home. And ask me to give you a scoby. Or some kefir grains to get you started!
Wanting to live a more sustainable life, I started natural beekeeping. Purchasing my first Warre hive in 2019 I now have a native sugarbag bee hive as well as European honey bees. It teaches me humility and patience as I have to be calm and centred before I open a hive of up to 40,000 bees!
Testimonials
“I have been seeing Wen Gibson since Dec 2015 after being referred by the The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Even from the first meeting I have always felt safe and comfortable with her. She has willingly and ably supported me through the various stages of dealing with the Royal Commission both in practical logistical terms as well as emotionally. She has always been there to support and help me through some dark times. Without her support I would have found them much harder to deal with (or not dealt with at some level). I fully appreciate her ongoing support.”
–David (Long Jetty)
“As a young person who has been seeing Wen for multiple years now, I can say that her sessions with me have been one of my most vital support networks over the years. I have found her counselling to be invaluable as a space where I can be seen, heard and understood, and a place that has enabled me to not only move past my experiences but grow from them as I move into adulthood. It is because of Wen’s work with me that I am beginning to understand myself and my relationships with others on a deeper level; something I have found to be of immeasurable value moving through adolescence. Wen is excellent at creating a safe and welcoming environment where I personally felt comfortable sharing my experiences as a young person, and her empathy, understanding and knowledge is unparalleled”
–Emily (Forresters Beach)
“I value the way in which Wen asks me to think of my professional supervision in the context of my own needs as a whole person. We do spend time talking about the practicalities of counselling and community work and Wen is generous to share the ways in which she uses various useful theoretical models. But the most interesting, powerful, (and challenging) parts are when we think about, and feel, how my own needs, history and personality intersect with my experiences at work. Wen is also very encouraging.“