Ms Jacquie Flecknoe-Brown

A conversation with Jacquie Flecknoe-Brown

• What led you to choose psychotherapy or counselling as a profession?

  I was always interested in communication, and the more experienced I became in my profession, the deeper I wanted to explore the therapy modalities. I worked for some time in an acute psychiatric ward where I learned family therapy (Milan school) and realised that even in psychosis, every act and statement was symbolic and had a meaning for the person, and even if it was difficult to decipher, with persistence one could understand the message the person was trying to communicate. This lead me to the master analyst of symbolic communication, Dr. Carl Jung and his writings. When I was able, I sold my house and trained in Switzerland as a Jungian Analyst.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  Of course, Dr. Jung's philosophy and dream interpretation method became the approach I use. The Dreamer's Odyssey (out in March 2020) is a fun and creative guide for both lay people and counsellors to working with your own or clients' dreams. Dreams tell us things we should know but don't!

• Which particular aspects of health or the human journey are you interested in?

  Jungian analysis focusses on the client's journey towards individuation or self-actualisation. This is the psychological development that we all, more or less successfully, move through as we age. Dream analysis helps to bring the unconscious background into consciousness, helping us not just to transition through our life stages, but to transform. In its deepest emotional sense, individuation is experienced and felt as spiritual development as well as psychological growth and maturity.

• What methods do you use?

  The basis of Jungian analysis is dream interpretation within a therapeutic relationship. This is a bit of a misnomer as the analyst does not interpret dreams in isolation, but in deep exploratory conversation with the dreamer. If an interpretation is not arrived at or does not sit with the dreamer, then it is shelved, and the process to find meaning for the dreamer continues.

• When do you think the client will start to feel that progress is being made?

  While Jungian analysis can go on for years, as it is a deep process which centres around self-understanding and not just symptoms, clients should begin to feel engaged and supported towards symptom-alleviation fairly quickly. Not every client wants or needs to go deeply into analysis, and so the early work focusses on relief and ego-strengthening, as well as self-knowledge.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Analysis has had profound effects, not necessarily in changing who we are, but in the understanding and acceptance of ourselves.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  The extraordinary dreams of ordinary people, and to accompany clients in their deep desires to understand and heal themselves.
  The fairy tale group is a great source of personal study for preparation of presentations and group discussion is very rewarding.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  Of course!

• What do you think is the most significant problem we face, in the world today?

  Having a future in a healthy world. Understanding that living by materialism alone will not satisfy the human soul.

• Can you share the name of a book, film, song, event or work of art that inspires you?

  Everything by C.G. Jung. Also The Matter with Things, Iain McGilchrist. Marie-Louise Von Franz, Barbara Hannah, M. Esther Harding, Edward Edinger, Robert A. Johnson, Vine Deloria Jnr, Iain McGilchrist, Shakespeare, Rumi; Van Gogh's Starry Night, Rodin's the Thinker, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and Casa Calvet; the Apocalypse Tapestry, Peer Gynt Suite, Four Seasons, Ode to Joy, Mozart's piano concertos and the Rolling Stones, Wild Horses. Archaeologists Marija Gimbutas and Esther Jacobson-Tepfer. Too many great documentaries: Matter of Heart, Tashi and The Monk, Awake, Big Silence, Planet Earth...