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Janet Dowling - Biography
This is where I get to tell you my story, and my journey to where I am today. As a child I was constantly telling stories and was fascinated to see how people interact. I trained in psychology to help understand this.
BA Psychology & Maths (Keele University1976)
I soon realized that I wanted to work with people more closely in their home environments. I decided to go into mental health social work and work in the community.
MSc Social Work, CQSW (Certificate of Qualification in Social Work) Bedford College, London University 1981)
On one of my training placements, I met Tom Rappaport, an educational psychologist. He taught me how to use storytelling in therapy, and it was this model that I used in my therapeutic work. I qualified as a social worker, and as part of my everyday work in the mental health team I was counseling people, and working with them to find solutions to the problems they were experiencing. I realised that the problems that people had now were often a solution to another problem they had when they were younger. It’s just that the old solution no longer applied! I found that family therapy helped me understand the kinds of pressures and stresses that people were experiencing, and also identify their strengths to find a new solution or story.
Training in Family Therapy
Institute for Family Therapy 1983-5, 1987-9
Tavistock Clinic 1985-1987
The form of family therapy that I used was based on the techniques of Milton Erikson who used stories to help people make changes in their lives. This was a meeting of both my passions.
I moved on to work as a senior manager in the NHS and social services for 10years- and in my management meetings I used all the skills and techniques I had learned as a therapist! I was renowned for telling stories to facilitate change!
In 2000 I went part time and developed my storytelling work for entertainment and, education (qv), and some management consultancy work (qv). As part of my development, I trained with Nancy Mellon on telling therapeutic stories.
Storytelling as a Healing Art 2001 Emerson College
I went fulltime storytelling in 2004. I was increasingly drawn back to therapeutic storytelling, and I completed a course on the style of hypnotherapy and therapeutic storytelling that derived from Milton Erikson's work.
Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy. 2005 (NSHaP)
The National School of Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy is one of the longest established training centres for Eriksonian Hypnotherapy, and is recognized by the UKCP. I have been in practice as a hypnotherapist & therapeutic storyteller since June 2005
Since then I have also trained in:
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) 2005
- Metaphor Therapy (also known as “Clean Language”) 2005
Both these enhance the therapeutic storytelling element of my work. And stories are how our unconscious minds stories information. Most of my analytical hypnotherapy work is based on exploring those old stories about how you behave, and working with you to change that story.
But I haven’t forgotten the need to have good skills for working with simple, straight forward problems. I trained with Tom Silver on his scientific hypnosis, and developed even more effective techniques!
Diploma in Advanced Scientific Hypnotherapy – (including Emotion Replacement Therapy) (Tom Silver Institute) 2006
My training has been a journey, and it isn’t over yet!
Like all people who work as professionals in therapeutic work, I have a supervisor with who I discuss my work - everything remains confidential. I am also a member of several professional organizations, including:
- Central Register for Advanced Hypnotherapy.
- Hypnotherapy Association.
- British Association of Social Workers.
- General Social Care Council (I maintain my registration as a social worker).
Having both a supervisor and professional organisations ensures that my standards remain high, I subscribe to an ethical standard, and that I keep my training up to date.