Therapist Profile

My Approach to Helping

Group work was my first love, starting in 1969, but I took up one-to-one work in 1980. My orientation is basically humanistic, but I have done so much work with psychoanalytic therapists that I am very familiar with those ideas and methods as well particularly in object relations. My interest in the transpersonal has increased as my own psychospiritual development has moved further on. Ken Wilber has helped to form my ideas about this. I have meditated every morning since early 1982. I now work at transpersonal levels as appropriate, as well as at the more familiar authentic and existential level. Although I have access to a number of useful techniques, I regard the healing therapeutic relationship as much more important than any of them. My practice is normally long-term, but I have also done short-term work, and have no reservations about doing it. Obviously with long-term work the relationship is particularly important. I see people in a dedicated consulting room in my home. The normal session is one hour, and the first session is free, to encourage prospective clients to shop around. My fees are in line with current practice, and I always have two clients on a low-cost basis. I can often offer an emergency session at short notice. Also offered are consultations on a one off basis, for people who are stuck or lost in their spiritual growth.

More Info About My Practice

John Rowan first started co-leading workshops in 1969 in a pioneering group called B Now. He co-led groups in 1971 at Centre 42 in Kensington, and then later in 1972 at the Kaleidoscope Centre in Swiss Cottage. During the period 1970-79 he studied with Bernard Gunther, Will Schutz, Elizabeth Mintz, Paul Lowe, Denny Yuson, John Adams, Al and Diane Pesso, James Elliott, Julian Silverman, John Pierrakos, Jay Stattman and others. In 1975 he learned co-counselling, practised it for five years, and later became a teacher of the Barefoot Psychoanalyst model. In 1978 he started his training with Bill Swartley in Primal Integration, which set the seal on his therapeutic initiation. He helped to found, with Giora Doron in 1978, the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies in Hampstead: when it became exclusively psychoanalytic he co-founded the Serpent Institute with Jocelyn Chaplin in 1989. This was a very exciting training centre in counselling and psychotherapy, based on a framework of Goddess spirituality, but it only lasted for four years. He then joined the Minster Centre, where he worked for ten years, training psychotherapists, leading seminars, experiential training groups and supervision groups. In 2004 he left to work on his own Masterclasses and other workshops, as well as keeping up his private practice in North-East London. Over the years he has given lectures and led workshops in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Hungary, Italy, Lanzarote and Skyros, as well as many places within the UK. These have mostly been about work in the field of humanistic and transpersonal studies. He speaks French as well as English, and has led groups in Belgium, France and Switzerland.