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Ava Perraton

Person-Centred Counsellor and Psychotherapist

Addictions Counsellor

Focusing Professional

Person-Centred Clinical Supervisor

In October 2009, accompanied by Mei-Mei (a small, round Siamese cat) Lleuad-the-dog, a 26 foot U Haul van with bald tires, and a driver called Clive, Ava moved from Whitehorse to Clearwater, BC. She had left for Kamloops in 1994 and was finally back in the valley which she calls home.

Ava grew up in Clearwater. She moved to Victoria after high school, worked for a bank while taking some courses at U Vic. She returned, took jobs as an accountant, a logging company manager, and then with a large timber company, had a family, and decided that she wanted to retrain as a human service worker. That was what prompted the initial move to Kamloops. Ava was involved with nonprofit agencies in Kamloops for several years before her next move.

...and the van with bald tires? It made the Alaska Highway but got stuck in wet snow in the driveway after unloading. (It had Arizona plates.)

Ava likes tools...equipment...
machinery...
This mower was a favourite in Norfolk

Ava's two daughters were completing high school themselves and preparing to set out on their own travels and journeys. With their blessing, their mother, too, was making plans. She travelled to England, worked for a year as a social worker in the Staffordshire Moorlands, then trained as a person-centered counsellor in Norwich at the University of East Anglia. Ava was one of Brian Thorne's last counselling students.

Once qualified, Ava joined Clive at Counselling People, stayed on at UEA to complete a Masters degree in counselling, and when Campbell Purton briefly introduced a postgraduate diploma in focusing and experiential psychotherapy, Ava was one of the first to enroll. For a time, she continued working for a national children's charity but gave that up for a part-time appointment at the University of East Anglia Counselling Service.

By now, Ava was BUSY, and Clive was adding to that. Ava was a big part of the behind-the-scenes development of the training program in High Wycombe and provided on-site supervision to many of its trainees. She is still involved with the charity Mothers4Mothers established by two of her supervisees.

Ava with one of the girls, hiking in the Kootenays

Ava's Counselling Qualifications

MA

PG Dip Counselling

PG Dip Focusing and Experiential Psychotherapy

PG Dip Addiction Studies

Certificate in Person-Centred Supervision

Accredited Member of BACP

Reg Clinical Counsellor

Certified Focusing Professional

Ava cooking the books

In 2004, Ava and Clive finally went home to Canada for a visit. In 2005, they bought a house back in Clearwater. In 2007, Ava decided to move to Canada and try to find a way back home. She began in Whitehorse working for a family services agency as a counsellor and traveling to First Nations communities in Yukon. In the Fall of 2009 the opportunity of a counselling position in Clearwater led to the U Haul with bald tires.

Ava walking with Lleuad near her house in Whitehorse

It was while working in Whitehorse that Ava took a distance education diploma in addictions studies which led to her appointment in Clearwater. She found the world of addictions studies a strange place for a radically person-centred therapist, but Ava—alone among her classmates—finished the course.

She remains a radically person-centered therapist.

Why Ava wanted to move home...
the view from the living room on an early spring morning

People who know Ava and Clive tend to think of Clive as the theorist and the person who writes articles. They probably don't realize how much Ava contributes to Clive's understanding of therapy. She has thousands of hours of clinical experience with a wide array of clients, and she never ceases trying to understand them and understand what will best help them. She is a totally committed counsellor whose agenda remains steadfastly that of the client she is with.

Ava works with individuals and couples, children and families, through talking and through art and play. She offers counselling and psychotherapy, experiential focusing, clinical supervision, and professional consultation. She does not specialize in "issues" or "problems", but she is comfortable working with the variety of troubles to be found in a general counseling practice: alcohol and addiction, relationship problems, abuse and trauma, eating disorders, depression… sadly, perhaps, most of us know what that list looks like.

TO CONTACT AVA

British Columbia

250 674 3635

Britain

0777 56 500 14

Email

perraton@
counsellingpeople.com

Ava waving goodbye...
to the front of her house
(Clive took it.)

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