Ben Percy

Background

I originally trained and worked as a secondary school teacher (Sociology, Politics, Citizenship) including working as Head of Department at a local comprehensive. I also spent time teaching in Colombia, which is where I picked up Spanish. Although I have moved away from teaching, I still work in education part-time.

Alongside that I volunteered with Breadwinners, supporting refugees and asylum seekers into employment; this work combined with my teaching career shaped my interest in counselling. I'm dyslexic, and I've come to see that less as a hurdle and more as something that's given me a deep empathetic understanding and way of thinking that strengthens my practice.

Outside work I'm an illustrator, I train in calisthenics which keeps me active, and I meditate which helps my own wellbeing and shapes my calm, relationship focused, congruent approach.

I have been drawn to therapeutic counselling through years of working alongside people in transitional periods (students, refugees, teachers navigating the profession) which kept bringing me back to the same realisation, that people need to be heard and understood. This helps to give people the tools to bring positive change to their lives or situations. This person-centred approach embodies my therapeutic understanding, placing people as the experts in their own lives and finding their inner strength and courage to facilitate positive change.