Karen Rawden, MA MBACP UKCP
Counselling and Psychotherapy
Tel: +44 (0)7824 343 565
PGDip Psychotherapy, MA Psychosynthesis Psychology, Dip Psychotherapeutic Counselling, Dip Counselling, Cert Online & Telephone Counselling
My Story
I am in my 50's and my life has been full and varied. I know what it is to experience the pain of separation and loss. And I also know how healing our emotional wounds of the past has the potential to transform our capacity to love and be loved in the future. It was this that inspired me to train as a therapist, to specialise working with clients as they heal from trauma, heartbreak and the impacts of survival.
My personal history includes the impacts of divorce both through the experience of a child and as an adult. I have endured life-threatening illness and know how survival and recovery changes how we view life and the world. I have known first-hand the pain of unhealthy relationship dynamics which can gnaw away at self worth, and the devastating effects of addiction on the individual and those closest to them.
The gift on the flip-side of my experiences is that of empathy and personal insight into the depths of suffering and hopelessness that clients may bring to therapy. I have been there too. And I know that it does not have to be the end of the story.
As a child, I remember a vivid inner knowing that we all have access to life's answers deep within us. As I grew, I increasingly came to believe this to be just as true, but that it takes the right person to ask the right questions to bring these answers into consciousness.
I also believe that we are connected to something much bigger, and that crucially, it is up to the individual to decide what this 'something' is, whether it’s that higher part of our Self, the Universe, a religious God or something else.
I was first drawn to psychosynthesis because it incorporates this element of spirituality into psychology in a way that I had not known elsewhere. It is non-denominational and respects that beliefs are uniquely personal. I trained at Institute of Psychosynthesis in London and recently joined the Faculty as a Studies Advisor supporting students in the final stages of their psychotherapy qualification.
I have always been fascinated with people and I believe, as George Eliot did, that whatever our circumstances and experience "it is never too late to be what we might have been".
I feel privileged to be mother and step-mother of three, whose ages range between primary school to adult. I live with my husband and our younger children, our Irish Setter and two little cats in the Northamptonshire countryside.