In this first episode, which was recorded in March 2022 I talk to Lynne Booker. Lynne has been working as a counsellor/therapist since 2004 in all sorts of different contexts, through the NHS, with a hospice, and more recently with the Refugee Council working with refugees and asylum seekers. Lynne initially trained at the University of East Anglia, doing a masters in Person Centred Counselling and wrote a dissertation on complicated grief. Lynne has a Jewish background and became Christian when she was 19. She was born in London but grew up in Reading and now resides in Lincolnshire with her husband. She also enjoys life drawing, being a mother (although the kids have flown the nest) and fairly recently become a grandmother. 

We talked about a lot in this first episode and therefore it’s an unnaturally long. We started off talking about Lynne’s training in Person Centred Counselling, why she wanted to become a therapist and her own personal journey which includes a break up with a partner she was very much in love with and the loss of her parents, which triggered a reevaluation of her relationship with them.

We also talked about the importance of meaningful tradition around grief, a loss of family ties and sense of community, refugees feeling war including PTSD, the different stages of your children growing up and a sense of loss of the person they were as we celebrate who they become and surprisingly we talked about football grief and masculinity plus Lord of The Rings! A trigger warning that there is lengthy conversation about child loss, miscarriage and still birth.

The episode include much more besides. Please do leave a comment if you have any feedback at all.

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