As someone who loves watching people grow and progress, Taupo psychotherapist Julie Bird had every reason to celebrate her own recent achievement – graduating from EIT Hawke’s Bay.
Family members gathered to see the wife, mother and grandmother presented with her Diploma in Integrative Psychology (Hakomi) at the 27 March graduation ceremony in Napier.
Julie describes the traditional and formal occasion as “the culmination of three years of hard work”.
Launching into her studies in her late 50s was a mammoth undertaking. Husband Jeff, who is battling asbestosis, also gave it his full commitment and Julie says she couldn’t have done it without his support.
“He picked up the slack while I studied. In effect, he ran the whole household and became an amazingly efficient secretary and administration manager in the process!”
Clients of Julie’s private practice were also understanding, organising appointments around her 10-day block courses while she remained in contact by phone and email for those who needed her support.
Julie also feels she couldn’t have managed without great friends in Hawke’s Bay who “housed me, fed me, nurtured me at the end of long days and made me one of their family”.
The study programme called for many personal “forfeits”. One of the biggest was not being able to have grandchildren stay during school holidays when Hakomi studies were EIT-based.
Julie advises anyone thinking of combining work and study to go for it.
“Yes, it is hard work and there are a lot of compromises to be made, but the benefits far outweigh anything else.
“Know which balls you can drop and let go of and which ones are really important to keep in the air. Always take time to play and to self nurture.”
Julie’s preference for working with people is reflected in her career achievements. She has been a human resources manager for an international company and, in 1987, received an international award for facilitating a self development programme nationwide.
“Called Investment in Excellence, it was very successful in PostBank, ANZ, BNZ and other high profile companies.”
Jeff’s diagnosis triggered careful thought about how the couple might shape their futures. He took early retirement and they moved to Taupo from Auckland in 2000, targeting it as a central location for setting up Julie’s practice – a long-held dream.
“It’s an ideal place from which to draw clients,” she enthuses. “I still have clients using my consultancy services from as far away as Auckland and Wellington.”
The practice is home-based on a property providing private access to the clinic. Lovely restful gardens developed by Julie offer an appropriate environment for clients.
Her initial focus was to consolidate the practice and get herself known in the community. Then, with, lots of professional development and encouragement from her professional supervisor, she moved into a deeper role of psychotherapy and trauma counselling.
Attracted to studying Hakomi as a form of guided self-study utilising body awareness, mindfulness and “little experiments” to evoke and transform a person’s core beliefs, Julie compares the journey to like knowing your way through a forest.
“You don’t have to keep the whole forest in your mind,” she says of clients assisted using this methodology, “but, wherever you are, you know where to go next.”