James Barrott

Current positions

Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Biography

James has been teaching at the University of Salford since 2013. Before this he was the Head of various University Counselling services, and has worked as a Counsellor in educational settings, several mental health contexts, with perpetrators of domestic violence, and in a child and family service. He has offered individual therapy as well as developing group therapy and psycho-educational groups. His original area of interest was of how culture affected the counselling process, and looking at ways of how culture could be made more figural in the counselling process, nothing which he has written on. Being interested in his own vivid dreams lead to him learning various techniques of dreamwork for both working on our own dreams and within client work. Being a musician who performs and records regularly, has meant that James has always explored and included how creativity is encompassed in therapy, and has always been interested in how creativity can be utilised more to great therapeutic effect within therapy sessions. James has offered independent training in all these areas prior to walking at Salford. Having been an environmentalist for many years lead to James being interested in the wider environment in which the client ultimately lives and how environmental issues are relevant in therapy and how client's anxieties regarding environmental issues (eco-grief) present in therapy, and he strived to include the wider environment in all his client work. The natural extension of this was developing an interest in outdoor therapy, and including in his teaching lessons on Shinrin-yoku (Japanese forest bathing) and outdoor (Walk and Talk) therapy. As well as being a musician, James grows lots of fruit and vegetables which he enthusiastically cooks or turns into jam, loves hiking up mountains, and has also discovered he appears to not be very good at training a puppy!