fiona goodwin

In order to keep painful feelings, memories, and experiences the unconscious, people tend to develop defense mechanisms, such as denial, repression, rationalization, and others. Psychodynamic therapists encourage clients to speak freely about their emotions, desires, and fears in order to reveal vulnerable feelings that have been pushed out of conscious awareness. According to psychodynamic theory, behavior is influenced by unconscious thought, and once vulnerable or painful feelings are processed the defense mechanisms reduce or resolve.

Fiona began counselling early for Nightline, a London student suicide hotline. She graduated with joint honours from London University and did her postgraduate teaching certificate at the London Institute of Education, specializing in pastoral care and languages. As a young high school teacher she gained her certificate as an educational counselor with the College of Preceptors. Then followed twenty-one years of working in high schools - this included pioneering an inclusion unit for adolescents with emotional and behavioural issues and designing a whole school emotional literacy programme for staff and students. Her work gained national recognition and was written up in the Education Guardian. Her Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica led to her becoming licensed in the UK as a psychotherapist by the British Association of Counselors and Psychotherapists. She is now in private practice in Santa Monica, California, and also works internationally with clients via phone/skype.

Fiona’s approach is person-centred and psychodynamic, she creates a safe space in which the client can explore and incorporates a wide range of techniques, Gestalt, transactional .