From Nature to Self-Awareness: Reflections on Entering Counselling Practice
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
— Carl R. Rogers
Last year, I began a journey into counselling. I am not entirely sure what first brought me there, but it felt like a natural step in the evolution of my practice. Personal experience played a part, alongside a growing sense that it was time to deepen my understanding and work within a clearer theoretical framework.
Through forest bathing and forest therapy, I had already witnessed how people often begin to feel better simply by being held in a calm, supportive space. Over time, my curiosity moved beyond the environment itself and towards the inner processes at play. I wanted to understand the mind more deeply — grief, emotional experience, and how meaningful support can be offered in a way that is both mindful and grounded in theory.
Questions gradually emerged: Is holding space enough? What actually supports change? How can care be offered ethically, without directing or fixing? These questions led me towards counselling and, more specifically, towards a humanistic approach.
Humanistic counselling, and in particular Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Approach (also known as Client-Centred or Rogerian Therapy), is based on the belief that people hold an innate capacity for growth and self-actualisation. Within this approach, the individual is viewed as the expert in their own experience, supported by a therapist who offers a safe, non-judgemental relationship grounded in three core conditions: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence (genuineness). It is through these conditions that self-discovery and change can emerge.
As Carl Rogers wrote:
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
— Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy
This perspective helped me make sense of both how I was feeling and how my practice might continue to evolve. It offered language and structure for something I had already begun to sense intuitively: that growth does not come from being pushed or fixed, but from being met with understanding and acceptance.
Alongside this, I began engaging with the work of Brené Brown, particularly her reflections on vulnerability and self-compassion. As she notes:
“How much we know ourselves is extremely important, but how we treat ourselves is the most important.”
— Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability
The theme of vulnerability, and its place within wellbeing and counselling practice, deserves its own space and will be explored further in future writing.
Completing my Level 3 training in Counselling Skills significantly deepened my understanding of these ideas and their practical implications. It reinforced the importance of working within a clear ethical framework and of offering an appropriate space in which people can explore their experience safely and at their own pace. Rather than providing solutions, the focus is on creating conditions that support awareness, self-understanding, and the capacity for change.
This learning has helped me integrate different strands of my work — supporting the mind and the body through approaches that draw on what we already have within us, and around us. It has confirmed the value of combining relational theory with nature-based and holistic practices, allowing my work to continue evolving in a way that feels both grounded and responsible.
Reference note
This post references Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred (Client-Centred) Approach as outlined in On Becoming a Person (1961), and Brené Brown’s work on vulnerability, particularly The Power of Vulnerability. It also reflects learning from formal counselling skills training and ongoing professional development.
