Jacqueline Green Counselling, Dunbar (2026)

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.

18/03/2026

It’s at that moment you see my eyes clock my water bottle. This massive, crushed and old plastic bottle from earlier that week - still going strong.
It definitely doesn’t match the whole ‘calm, put together therapist with a glass of water’ vibe I could be going for here.

But I use it anyway - with a [ooops here I am as a person and not a polished therapist] smile 💁‍♀️ and then we both burst into laughter!

At other times, it might be an in joke we share and laughter, a light reflection on something heavy from the week before, an absolutely disgusting gigantic water bottle, a side smile when we see what’s happening, a runny nose or cough that finds its way in at crucial times, coffee spilt down your top, your dog barking into the laptop, or even a window cleaner popping up and making me jump out my chair 😂
- the list goes on.

A light moment like this that lets the relationship speak for itself. It might not look much, but it’s the relationship we have that makes therapy feel possible, effective, safe. And I work relationally.

It might be because I’ve been doing this so long I don’t overthink these things anymore.
It might be that I just feel comfortable with whatever it brings up.
It might be that I trust the safety between us and can hold both the heavy and the light.
Whatever it is - I’m professional sure - but also HUMAN! And you are welcome to show up as a human too. Not a performer, not as a people pleaser, not as someone who needs to question what I’m thinking…. Just human. Whatever that looks like for you…. And if you struggle with that - I’m here to help you. J x

13/03/2026

As cringy as it might sound for some people, one of the first things I often do when someone arrives in therapy is notice how they’re in their body.
How are they arriving?
Whats the body holding from the morning passed?

Throughout our session together, we might pause and check in with how a story or memory feels physically - the tension in the shoulders, the lump in the throat, the tightness in the chest, the way the stomach twists, the energy radiating from the hands.
Just noticing what’s happening in the body as we explore what’s coming up. This is where my work bridges the gap between thoughts and body…. And it really helps us to heal and not ‘just talk about it’.

That same principle applies outside of therapy.
There are little pockets of time already in your day - a moment by the kettle, a pause in the car, standing in a queue - that can become small reminders to breathe, notice, soften, and come back into yourself.

This week on my reel I explored that idea and this carousel takes it a little further.

No extra time needed.
No big routines.
No life hack and big commitments.

Just tiny moments that are ALREADY there, quietly waiting for you to notice.

Even the smallest pause can help your nervous system settle, let your mind come down from overdrive, and remind you that you don’t always have to be “doing” to matter.

Sometimes all it takes is a brief moment of presence, right where you already are.
J x

05/03/2026

We’ve been conditioned to believe that our rest must be “earned,” as if human value is something we only get to claim after the to-do list is empty. So rest only feels restful when actually you’ve ‘done’ all of the things’.

But have you noticed that even when the house is quiet or the sun is out, your body still feels like it’s bracing for an impact? It might be ‘looking’ for the next thing it needs to do.
This is the “unseen wind” of a culture that profits from our over-functioning.

When I talk about a dual approach in my practice, this is exactly what I mean. We can’t just talk our way out of a nervous system that has been wired for “Go Mode” by decades of systemic pressure.
Through a systemic lens, we name the culprits…… patriarchy, or “rush culture,” and the relentless expectation to be a machine.
We move the shame off your shoulders and put the responsibility back onto the systems that put it there in the first place.
Then, through a somatic lens, we attend to the “hum” in your limbs and the tightness in your chest. The anxiety and the compulsions you feel to ‘do more’.

I don’t force you to relax; I simply create a sturdy, compassionate container where your body can finally learn that it is safe to set the heavy lifting down.

Slowing down isn’t a luxury. It’s a quiet, powerful act of rebellion against a world that wants you to stay exhausted.

🕊️

12/02/2026

In my work, we bridge the gap between understanding and embodiment, so your body can actually feel the safety, boundaries, and pacing you intellectually agree with.

🌼 Because it’s one thing to say, “I need to rest.”
It’s another for your nervous system to believe it’s safe to stop.

🌼 It’s one thing to know you’re allowed to set boundaries. It’s another for your body not to brace for rejection when you do.

🌼 It’s one thing to recognise you’re stuck in a pattern.
It’s another to have the physiological capacity to choose differently.

Awareness happens in the mind.
Lived change happens when the body updates too.

That’s the difference between insight and integration.
Between knowing — and becoming.

Guiding you towards integration - on living life through your mind AND body - is something I love to do.
My diary is full just now and unable to take any new counselling clients on but feel free to message me to be out on the wait list! 😌
J

05/02/2026

Recently, I’ve been floored with a virus.
To try and get well again, I’ve had some weekend days in bed, some time off work, working very small days, carrying our bare minimum tasks, and I’ve been in bed by 8pm every night.

But it didn’t have to be like this at all.

In the weeks leading up to getting ill, I knew I was doing too much. I even named it out loud to people. I’d shared on my stories that I had to have a few productive weekends at home because of a big project and that I was trying to carve out time for myself alongside it. I was aware of the load - and I was doing my best to hold it.

But knowing isn’t always enough.

This is the quiet tension we live inside of.
We notice the signs, we try to compensate, we squeeze in rest around the edges, and sometimes we still let it go on too long.

From a somatic perspective, the body is constantly communicating long before it forces a pause. Through tightness, poor sleep, irritability, frequent colds, headaches, gut issues, low mood, brain fog, emotional reactivity. These aren’t random. They’re signals.

When those signals can’t be listened to because life, work, pressure, responsibility don’t allow space - the body eventually makes the decision for us.
Often at the most inconvenient times…..

Like when you finally get time off - When a long-awaited plan arrives - When your diary is full but your reserves are empty.

Rush culture teaches us to override, minimise, push through. Somatic work teaches us something different: the body knows the cost of doing that long before the mind does.

Resisting this culture isn’t about doing less perfectly. It’s about listening earlier. Adapting sooner. Allowing the body to guide the pace instead of waiting until it collapses.
And learning to hear that information - with less judgement and more honesty - is part of the work.

This is your sign that…
‘knowing’ isn’t enough.
‘Acknowledging’ isn’t enough.
‘Understanding’ isn’t enough.
‘Underpromising’ isn’t enough.

When you see the signs, what do you usually do??

Address

Dunbar

Website

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

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