Somatic Experiencing Therapy on the Wild Atlantic Way
Joanne Hanrahan was the presenter for our third Café on 1 June 2021. She was invited to share her outdoor practice and present on the benefits she sees to increasingly integrating SE with work in the natural world.
Joanne has 25 years of experience in Psychotherapy and Counselling. Having dedicated her early career to school counselling services, she now works as a Psychotherapist in private practice in Co. Clare. Those of you who are completing their SE training (one more module to go!) will know her as a colleague on the training.
In 2015 Joanne completed an MSc research thesis on the role the outdoors and the natural world can play in Psychotherapy. Since then, she has gained considerable experience in working outdoors with clients. She has given keynote addresses on the topic at international conferences and provides CPD trainings for mental health professionals on integrating this approach into their clinical practice. Joanne has a keen interest in marrying SE with Outdoor Psychotherapy and continues her own phenomenological research on many natural mergers of the two.
A well-attended café heard Joanne share her discoveries in working both indoors and outdoors with people, the beauty of the countryside where she works, and how it impacts on her clients, the issues she has met, and the joys and successes of her work. It was clear from the many questions that followed, that many of us have considered, especially during the pandemic, meeting our clients outdoors. Not so simple in urban settings, but the natural world can be brought in to our practices in many ways!
Her recent article published in Inside Out, the Irish Journal for Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, can be read here.
