Meet the Therapist: Jennifer Achan

Sep 17, 2024

meetthetherapist

Jennifer Achan is a systemic psychotherapist in south London and online

What attracted you to become a therapist?

I was a social worker/psychosocial practitioner for 25 years working with children and families, within social care and therapeutic environments. I enjoyed working with families from diverse backgrounds, and I wanted to extend these experiences in the clinical field.

Therapy helped me and my own family. As a refugee, displacement was difficult and therapy helped us adapt to life in the UK. Most importantly, it helped us with better communication and addressing conflicts, grief and understanding of our different experiences in the family.

Where did you train?

I did psychosocial studies (BSc) at University of UEL. Then a Postgraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Systemic Practice with Families at Institute of Family Therapy, followed by an MSc in Systemic Family Psychotherapy at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Can you tell us about the type of therapy you practise?

I have a broad range of skills in my therapeutic tool kit, such as counselling skills, NVR, narrative, basic DBT and psychoanalysis. My main discipline is systemic couple and family therapy. My work is informed by systemic theory, with an emphasis on relationship and communication. This helps me to understand my clients in a much deeper way.

I work collaboratively, which means I see therapy as a partnership in which we work together at overcoming difficulties and highlighting resources.

How does systemic therapy help?

Systemic and family psychotherapy enables me to provide, co-create, a space in which we can together, explore and talk together about difficult issues and work towards sustainable change. The difference that makes the difference. I focus on relationships; systemic therapy is a unique approach that focuses on the individual context of their relationships with others. It recognises that an individual is not isolated but is part of a larger unit or system, such as a family, couple, organisation, or community.

The goal of systemic therapy is to identify the deep-rooted patterns within a person’s relationships and within family members. By uncovering how members communicate and behave based on their beliefs about their roles, the therapy process helps people understand and alter unhealthy relationship dynamics. I work intersectionally and embrace cross-cultural work.

What sort of people do you usually see?

I work with clients from various backgrounds (class, gender, sexuality, age, race, ethnicity, and religion):

Young people with mental health issues.
Individuals, children and families living with HIV
Separation, infidelity, divorce and co-parenting
Difficulties during adolescence, child behaviour difficulties
Parenting children with challenging behaviour
Domestic violence in families and / or male who experience domestic violence
Immigration (conflicts of war)
Cultural issues
Race

Have you noticed any recent mental health trends or wider changes in attitude?

Over the years of practising, I am seeing more people presenting with depression and anxiety both in adults and children. Social media appears to me to be the biggest contributing factor to young people’s low self-esteem.

There has been a high rise in ADHD and ASD diagnoses in children.

More people from the global majority are talking about their racial trauma and / or internalised racial trauma.

What do you like about being a therapist?

As someone who has had analysis over the years, I believe that it has made a great difference in the way I see the world. I am honoured to be in this field where I am able to make a difference that makes all the difference. I like empowering individuals, couples and families as they uncover their innate capacity to be the best they can be, and to experience the greatest joy and fulfilment possible in their lives.

I seek to be an instrument in the lives of those I might help. I believe that “people are experts on their lives”. I am an instrument in empowering the other, I am not the expert on the other's life, and what would work best for them. I love the idea of taking a client-honouring and therapeutically collaboratively approach to therapy. In the words of Ubuntu philosophy: “I am, because we are.”

What is less pleasant?

Referrals where clients feel forced to come to therapy against their wish, i.e. young people referred by social services and/or court. Therapy only works when the person is ready to engage and is willing to do the work.

How long have you been with Welldoing and what you think of us?

I have recently joined and met some Welldoing members on walks, on Clapham Common. They were very welcoming.

The Welldoing website has a lot of information and it is easy to navigate my way through. There are a lot of resources that I am looking forward to utilising i.e. CPD, peer support group.

What books have been important to you in terms of your professional and personal development? Do you ever recommend books to clients?

I have read variety of systemic texts, psychoanalytic texts (mainly Freudian) and psychosocial texts, which crosses various modalities in psychotherapeutic work – the list is endless.

I will recommend the following non-academic books: The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate; All About Love by bell hooks which I recently read. For clients I mainly refer them to NHS self-guided help website if they ask.

What you do for your own mental health?

I do mindfulness, yoga and tai-chi. I practice having a work-life balance. I have had over ten years in training, all of which required me to have my own personal psychotherapy (psychoanalysis) twice a week. Although I am not in training anymore, I still see my psychoanalyst whenever I need to offload.

As a therapist, I have secondary trauma projected on me by my clients. Sometimes, these experiences resonate with me, in terms of similarities and differences. As a therapist I think it is important to work on myself, so that I am grounded and present to contain my clients. Self-analysis gives me a better standpoint to tap into the self of the therapist and self-reflexivity.

You are a therapist in Clapham, London. What can you share with us about seeing clients in this area?

Clapham Common, South London is an area of great cultural and socio-economic diversity. Most of my clients work in inner city areas but live locally, and sometimes my clients are from other boroughs. I have over 25 years of experience of working with different cultures, ethnicities and income brackets.

I also work online.

What’s your consultation room like?

I do a mixed face-to-face and online therapy in Clapham. The nearest stations are Clapham Common Underground or Clapham High Street Overground. The practice is ten minutes from any of the nearest train station and has five discreet therapy rooms which offer a warm welcoming atmosphere.

What do you wish people knew about therapy?

That having therapy is the greatest gift you can give yourself and/or family; it changes your life. That having therapy is nothing to feel ashamed of, lots of people have therapy. It’s not as scary as you think, but you get what you put in.

I wish more global majority people would/could access therapy; it’s not only for white middle class people, as might be the stereotype. Therapy can be useful for everyone, irrespective of your race, class and sexual orientation.

What did you learn about yourself in therapy?

I learnt to accept my vulnerabilities, because there’s power in being vulnerable. There is courage in being vulnerable and that vulnerability is a positive thing to experience not a weakness. I learnt that being vulnerable opens doors and created space for me to be seen. It made me ask for help and accept help from others. I learnt that I am fallible, and that I need to be kind to myself. Human beings, we are not an island, we are social beings and need to be connected with others.