Bruce Paulsen

Counsellor and Psychotherapist…

What motivates me?

It’s funny how clarity sometimes comes unexpectedly. A course I was doing called me to identify my core values, my response to which was ‘I have no idea’. So I sat and pondered, discarding my initial responses. I was surprised at what arose, that is ‘to see people get free’.

Janet and I have sometimes found ourselves being with those who have perhaps walked a harder path than others, but often with those who at the time, simply needed a little compassion and support. We have felt humbled to have the privilege of fulfilling this role.

This experience and my strong belief in the vital importance of the marriage relationship motivated me to undertake training with The Gottman Institute, where I studied ‘Gottman Method Couples Therapy’. Later studies in ‘Emotion Focussed Couples Therapy’, an Attachment Theory based approach has provided further depth to my therapeutic toolkit. I love the straightforward, friendship based approach of both of these models, and complimented with my other love, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), I feel I have acquired an effective tool-kit to help me fulfill my core value of ‘seeing people get free’.

To me, to be ‘free’ means to be at liberty to live a life without being dominated by the troubling thoughts and emotions common to human experience.