Jacqueline Green Counselling

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United Kingdom
Dunbar
Jacqueline Green Counselling

I am a young person and adult counsellor. BSc, PGDip, MBACP. I am a registered member of the BACP.

I offer online and phone counselling sessions throughout the UK and additionally, face to face within East Lothian. All emotions, challenges, life experiences and difficulties are welcome in counselling. Some of my speciality areas include; adolescents, childhood trauma, attachment/ relationships, grief/bereavement, suicidal ideation, pre/postnatal difficulties and estrangement. As a person-centred counsellor, I adapt my practice depending on a person's unique needs to ensure that you get what you need out of counselling. I will offer you understanding, empathy and complete acceptance. I hope that this helps you to feel comfortable, trusted and safe, especially because talking through some of our most difficult feelings can be scary. By validating your emotions and experiences, and sometimes offering gentle challenge to gain insight and awareness, we can work together, at your own pace, to process and heal your difficulties and help you move forward in healthier ways, in a way that's more true to who you really are.

13/11/2025

We’ve all been told to “set boundaries.”
And it is good advice, sometimes life-saving.

Boundaries built from self-trust, awareness, and safety are essential. They help us stay grounded, connected, and in integrity with ourselves. Many of us have spent years learning to say no, to choose peace, to stop overextending, and that’s powerful work.

But here’s the part we don’t talk about enough….

Sometimes the line we draw isn’t rooted in self-trust…
it’s rooted in fear.

- Like when we don’t reply to a message because we think we’ve been rejected.
- When we ghost a friend instead of saying, “that hurt my feelings.”
- When we block someone to avoid the discomfort of conflict, not because they’re unsafe, but because we feel exposed.
- When we label every difficult conversation as “too draining” when, really, it’s just vulnerable.

Those moments aren’t shameful, they’re human.
But they’re also opportunities.

Because when a “boundary” is built on fear, it doesn’t protect our peace…it protects our pain.
It keeps us from sitting long enough in the discomfort to learn what it’s trying to show us.
It stops emotions from moving through the body, so they stay stuck, humming beneath the surface.

And this isn’t about judging yourself.
Avoidance can wear the same outfit as self-care.

When we pause and ask,

“am I protecting myself, or am I avoiding something inside me?”

we begin to tell the difference.

Sometimes a healthy boundary is closing the door.
Sometimes it’s keeping it open just long enough to breathe through the discomfort.

Both can be loving.
Both can be healing.

It’s about knowing which part of you is choosing 🤎

If you’re looking for a counsellor who can hold all of you, and encourage you to help stay with the feelings and sensations long enough to create new patterns, then that might be me. 😏😌 That’s the beauty of the therapy I provide…. Talking therapy mixed with somatic therapy. 🥰

11/11/2025

Imagine this…..

03/11/2025

How can we lean into wintering? 🌲⛄️🧣🪾🌨️

Every season asks something different of us.

Summer invites expansion.
With long evenings, open windows, connection, movement, more time spent outdoors in the fresh air, lightness (and maybe even some fruit platters and iced coffees 🙃)

Winter, though, asks something quieter.
It calls us inward.
To restore, to ground, to gather ourselves.

In a world that tells us to stay “on” all year round, winter reminds us that rest is not regression…..
it’s renewal. We’re meant to have seasons too.

This is the time for slower mornings.
Stretches and wind downs. Less plans and more permission to slow down. For warm, grounding food.
For tending to what’s been neglected….
Maybe that’s our energy, our inner world and our bodies. For letting stillness do its work.

Leaning into winter isn’t about isolation.
It’s about integration.

Listening 💫 replenishing 💫 reconnecting

So that when light returns, we rise from rest, not depletion.

To make the most of winter and allow it to help us, we need to see its beauty and its strength.
It’s offers us SO much!!!!

What things can you think of doing and way of being, that can help you lean into wintering?
I would love to hear ⬇️

29/10/2025

I was 14 when I got that 100% attendance certificate.
I remember feeling proud, proud that I’d pushed through. Through the tiredness, the mile long walk to school every morning in the rain and even the time I didn’t know what to do when my nan passed away so I just went to school.
I added it to my “career portfolio” as proof of commitment, perseverance, strength. Because that’s what I was told.

The thing is… I had ignored my body that whole year.
I’d ignored pain, exhaustion, tiredness, pressures, overwhelm, grief…..and I was praised for it.
How sad is that 😓

And this isn’t just about school.
We see this everywhere in the western culture:
🏃‍♀️ Going to the gym instead of resting because “discipline.”
💻 Working through lunch because “dedicated.”
🤒 Saying “I’m fine” when you’re not, because “everyone’s busy.”
🤰 Coming back too soon after birth because “you bounce back quickly.”
🧠 Staying in relationships, jobs, or routines that drain you because “you don’t quit.”
❌ Not taking sick days because you feel guilty for others picking up the work.
😤 Not showing emotion because it’s not appropriate.

We’re taught from an early age that ignoring our body is admirable.
Kids are taught to not tantrum, teenagers told to ignore anxiety and just get on with it, adults told to drink or sleep our feelings away.
That suppressing needs means strength.
That pushing through discomfort means you’re coping.

So is it any wonder that so many of us now feel burnt out, disconnected, anxious, or numb? Living in this functional but frozen state.
For many - rest feels wrong, our emotions catch us off guard, and our bodies hold tension we can’t quite name!

This is where therapy, especially therapy that includes the body, can help us unlearn these patterns.
In my work, I integrate a somatic approach into talking therapy, helping clients reconnect with their body’s signals, emotions, and rhythms.

Because healing isn’t about pushing through.
It’s about finally listening and letting your body be part of the conversation.

22/10/2025

If there’s one thing I encourage you to do in therapy, this is it……

let the voice inside your head have space in the room.

Not the surface-level words, but the quiet, constant monologue underneath.
The one that says:
“You should be coping better.”
“Don’t say that out loud.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“That’s embarrassing”
“That’s not what she wants to hear”.

I know that voice…… I’ve sat in therapy and held back too. Smiled, nodded, said the “right” things, while my mind was busy managing, analysing, protecting myself.

It’s not that we don’t want to share, it’s that we’ve learned not to.

But it’s often in that invisible struggle - the part you usually keep hidden - where the real work begins.

When those thoughts and sensations finally have space to be spoken, safely and without judgement, something shifts. It’s not about fixing or performing insight; it’s about being REAL.
Letting what’s been swirling inside you be met, seen, and understood - maybe for the first time. Learning and practicing how to vulnerable, how to be seen, how to show authenticity. This kind of relationship with a therapist can help you process the awkwardness, unlearn the narratives, increase your tolerance of discomfort, and come out of hiding….. you’re worth it 💁‍♀️

20/10/2025

The truth is, these seasons of in-between are inevitable.
We don’t move through life in neat, tidy transitions. Instead, we shed, pause, resist, rest, question, and rebuild, often all at once.

Sometimes the old ways of being stop fitting.
The roles we hold, the habits and behaviours, the ways we used to think or feel…. they start to….. not work like they used to.
But the new version of ourselves hasn’t fully arrived yet, so we sit in this strange middle ground that feels uncertain, uncomfortable, and……
necessary.

In therapy, I often meet people here…. not at the start or the end, but right in that messy middle.
The place we are most confused, struggling and even feeling lost and scared.
But it’s also where we begin to make sense of who we’re becoming. The place where things are quietly rearranging. The process of becoming is a powerful one!

It’s not a breakdown. It’s an unfolding.
A recalibration.
A quiet kind of progress.

You don’t need to rush it or name it.
Just keep moving gently through this space with curiosity.
Every version of you is leading somewhere important.

🍂

Have you felt like you’re between versions of yourself lately? Are you shedding and becoming?

15/10/2025

Intellectualisers listen up!!!!! 👂‼️🔔😝

We spend so much time trying to understand ourselves - analysing, explaining, making sense of why we feel the way we do. Thinking that if we understand, it’ll be easier to hold, or things will change.
But understanding isn’t the same as healing.

In the therapy room, I sit with people who know exactly what’s going on for them. They can describe their patterns, talk about their triggers, even empathise with the parts of themselves that struggle.
And yet… they still feel stuck.

[I was stuck too!! I read the books, did all the training, emotional awareness was top notch, but I too previously wondered…. But what now?]

That’s because emotions live in the body.
They’re not just things we feel or that we can talk about, they’re things we physically experience….

The tension in your jaw.
The lump in your throat.
The heaviness in your chest.
The tears that keep coming.
The gut that never behaves as we want it to.

They’re the body’s way of saying: “something here needs attention”.

Somatic work helps us tune into those sensations…
to track them, stay curious, and allow them to move through rather than get trapped.
It’s how trauma release begins.
It’s how we start to feel less “stuck” and more in tune.

In therapy with me, it isn’t about trying to think your way through, there’s another way…..
it’s about reconnecting with the parts of you that have been quietly carrying everything all along.

If you’ve been trying to understand yourself but still don’t feel any different, this might be where we begin.

Talking therapy - somatics - trauma - experiencing - release.

Get in touch if this speaks to you and you’re wondering where to begin 👋

10/10/2025

This week, two moments really stood out to me with therapy outside.

A client and I were walking, talking about feeling stuck in life. Wondering if it was the universe’s sign to give up a dream they were pursuing.
As we noticed our pace, the way we slowed down, the pauses between us, it mirrored exactly what was happening inside.
The outside world became a kind of parallel process; the space, the air, even the uneven ground helped us both make sense of what “stuck” really felt like and what it might mean to move again.

Later in the week, a supervisee chose to have their session outside too. It rained - but we both had wellies and boots on so it gave us this permission to just put our hoods up and move at some pace! There was something so grounding and safe about it.
The sound of rain softened the edges of our words. There was no rush, no performance.
Just two people walking together, thinking, reflecting. Pausing for little moments where we noticed what was coming up in between us.
By the time we looped back to where we started, we both noticed how the conversation, like the walk, had unfolded naturally.
What began heavy had somehow found space to breathe.

That’s the quiet power of being outside.
It’s therapy (or supervision!) that moves with you…. sometimes literally, and it often finds its own rhythm before you even notice it’s happening.

🌧️ Sometimes, it’s not about the conditions being perfect. It’s about realising you can still find clarity, grounding, and safety 🌧️ even in the rain.

08/10/2025

💁‍♀️

We learn to smile through so much, don’t we?
To sound okay. To seem okay. To keep going.
Even when our body quietly whispers not again.

Maybe it’s that familiar heaviness in your chest.
That tension in your jaw.
That tiny pause before you say “I’m fine” and keep moving.
Maybe it’s that reoccurring headache.
Or the gastro inflammation every year.

These are the quiet signs of a system doing its best to keep you safe…. to keep the peace, to hold it all together, to stay in control, to not be a bother.

But when we spend our lives overriding those signals,
we lose touch with what our body’s been trying to tell us all along.

In therapy, we start to notice that. It starts simple.
We might firstly start to recognise biological sensations like needing to eat or drink. Then we may move onto physiological or emotion sensations. The sighs, the pauses, the protective smiles or pleasing tendencies.
Over time we closer attention at a pace that feels okay to you.

Because awareness isn’t just in the mind, it’s in the moments your body speaks before your words do.

✨ You don’t have to keep saying “good morning”
when what you really mean is “this is hard, I’m not okay today”.

Come as you are in therapy - I’ll help you learn how to unfilter yourself
J x

Ps
Sorry for this awful video 😂💁‍♀️

therapy

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Dunbar

Website

http://www.jacquelinegreencounselling.co.uk/

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