Gemma Trace – Therapist for Village Works
Gemma describes herself as a counsellor, a therapist, and she helps her clients deal with issues that are preventing them from living their lives, supporting them as they confront the root causes of their difficulties and breaking through barriers. She works with Village Works clients who need support to move forward with their lives, often from difficult places, of mental or physical ill health, poverty and other situations.
She is talking from experience, with a history that includes many areas in common with her clients.
She was brought up in North Cornwall and continues to live there, so is familiar with the circumstances and poverty that are common to estates. Her mother had to go next door to borrow their phone at the time her brother was born, less than 30 years ago, that’s how poor they were.
Becoming a single mum on benefits at the age of 20 made Gemma think – she felt that she could either remain in similar circumstances to those her family had known for years, or make changes. She’d working as a care assistant before, and friends had told her ‘You’d make a great counsellor’, so that was the direction she chose. She was eligible for government-funded training, and when her son was 10 months old, grabbed it with both hands, starting her Level 2 Counselling Skills in Bude, followed by Level 3 Counselling Studies.
Because she was so young, she wasn’t allowed to carry straight on with the next level of training, so took six months out and trained in grief with Cruse Bereavement Agency, working in their Barnstaple office.
She did eventually take her Level 4 and Level 5 in Integrative Counselling, which gave her the skills to look at the person as a whole, and treat them with different approaches depending on their needs. Gemma works to build a relationship with her clients, allowing them to feel safe when discussing their deepest fears or the things that they don’t share with others. Her aim is to help people express themselves, and discuss those ‘demons’, at which point they often discover that they aren’t alone in their anxieties!
Death and serious illness are areas which often impact her clients, and Gemma has experienced both of those at very close quarters. Her parents died within 3 months of each other, 9 years ago, having been terminally ill for a while, and her son was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 13. With extensive treatment, he survived, but there have been some lingering after-effects.
Being a step-parent and living with a blended family can be a cause of strife for some clients, and Gemma is navigating that in her own life too. She met her now-husband when her son was 3, and his son was 2, and although her step-son doesn’t live with them full time, she’s well aware of the possible problems that can come up. Needless to say, she has a lot of experience with parenting!
She took two years off altogether around the deaths of her parents, and reduced her workload again when her son was ill, so balancing work and family life is another area where Gemma can really empathise with her clients.
Over the years Gemma has worked with a Parent Assessment Centre, SANDs, the Survivor’s Alliance for North Devon, which works with both adult and child victims of sexual abuse. She’s also supported clients at drug and alcohol rehab centres, as well as doing private practice work. Village Works was looking for someone in the Bude area at about the time that she was looking to extend her business, and she has been able to integrate well with the project’s ethos. She says, “Village Works really has it right – you recognise deep seated issues need to be processed and barriers broken down before progress can be made into work or other things.”
Village Works clients who work with Gemma will usually have 6 initial sessions, although an extension is sometimes offered, and referrals are made to other agencies when Gemma feels that more work is needed. She will listen to a client, reassure them and offer no judgement. She helps people to separate unhealthy or unhelpful behaviour from themself as a person, and offers support to work through the issues behind the behaviour. (“I am an angry person” becomes “I am a person who sometimes has a problem with anger” and “My anger stems from xxxx and I can deal with it by xxxx”)
When she’s not working Gemma likes taking walks on the beach with her Romanian rescue dog Finnegan. She dreams that one day Finnegan will be a registered Therapy Dog, and help her with her clients, but in the meantime, he’s Gemma’s own therapist! Working with people so intensively means that Gemma needs time on her own to recharge her batteries, and Finnegan is excellent at that. Having a brother who is a PT instructor means that Gemma is inclined towards fitness as well. She has done a couple of triathlons in the past, plus yoga, and is getting back into fitness after taking time out during her son’s illness.
Gemma’s husband and brother are both practising martial artists and she draws from the philosophies. One of her favourite quotes is from Bruce Lee – Don’t pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.