James Scurry
Email: james@jcstherapy.org
Tel: 020 4538 5977
Web:https://www.jamesscurry.com/
Type of Therapy
Mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapy for adult Individuals
(Core Process Psychotherapy is informed by Buddhist teachings of the mind and body)
About Me & How I Work
I’m a Mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapist accredited with the UK Council for Psychotherapists [UKCP] and the Association of Core Process Psychotherapists [ACPP].
Core Process Psychotherapy is an awareness-based, contemplative approach to psychotherapy which harnesses both ancient eastern, and contemporary western thought on the mind and body.
As the world moves beyond traditional medical approaches to working with mental and emotional distress, Core Process Psychotherapy offers a different way of working with the difficult experiences and feelings that we encounter throughout life.
During a therapy session we work slowly and safely with where the body leads us in the present moment. As a somatic (body-based) approach, Core Process Psychotherapy holds the potential to bring about deep and lasting personal transformation. Working with the body helps us to move beyond our personal stories (the things our conscious minds are already aware of) and into the deeper wisdom residing in our unconscious, which is held in the body.
Core Process Psychotherapy is not a psychotherapeutic approach connected to any one religious tradition, although its teachings are greatly informed by Buddhism. I draw on a broad cross section of wisdom spanning many spiritual traditions to help people to reconnect with, and to feel held by, something bigger than just themselves.
A psycho-spiritual perspective to therapy (that’s spiritual with a little ‘s’) means that I help to reorientate my clients back to that which is already whole within them. There are many different ways of languaging this inherent health which lies at the core of our Being, and during the therapeutic process, each individual comes to feel and understand it in their own unique way.
Beginning a journey of spiritual growth through weekly psychotherapy can feel like quite a daunting prospect at first, but with the right support and guidance it can provide a unique opportunity for a person to begin to look at the parts of their life that need attention, that have been buried or sometimes left unresolved.
In order for us to bring some of these more painful parts of our personal histories into the light of awareness, it’s crucial that we sense compassion present in another person. This in turn allows us to see the truth of why we’re feeling the way we are, how and why we’ve become constricted, and how we can go about moving forwards and to emerge into a greater fullness of Being (that’s to say feeling open, joyful and as though we’re living our life with greater ease.)
What is Core Process Psychotherapy?
Core Process Psychotherapy is a gentle, compassionate, somatic approach to psychotherapy that combines Buddhist teachings on the mind and body with western psychotherapeutic theories.
Core Process Psychotherapy begins with the premise that each of us possesses an immutable state of inherent health inside us, and that we all hold the potential to reorient towards that inherent health by embarking on our own personal inner journeys (or processes) of growth and transformation.
The word Core refers to who we really are at the centre of our Being, while the word Process refers to the ongoing unfolding inner journey that leads us to be able to live as our authentic self. If we think about our Core as a brightly polished mirror that reflects back to us an accurate image of who we really are, then the Process part of the journey refers to the work we do to polish the mirror and to remove the tarnish which prevents us from seeing a clear and accurate reflection.
Our ways of responding to the world we live in are greatly informed by our past conditioning and by the things we’ve experienced and needed to respond to as we’ve gone through life. These unconscious processes, reactions, and strategies may have been very important in order for us to cope with the things we had to face, however at a certain point we all outgrow them. Psychotherapy helps us to bring these patterns, strategies and behaviours into conscious awareness, to examine and understand them, and then ultimately to let them go so that we can cultivate new and more helpful ways of simply 'being', better suited to our current lives.
Areas I Work With
- Abuse
- Anger management
- Anxiety and panic
- Altered states & psychosis
- Bereavement and grief
- Bipolar
- Borderline diagnoses
- Bullying
- Cancer
- Childhood trauma
- Complex trauma
- Depersonalisation
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Emotional Abuse
- Hearing voices and diagnoses of schizophrenia
- Inner child work
- Loneliness
- Low Self-Confidence
- Low Self-Esteem
- Post-traumatic stress (PTSD)
- Physical Abuse
- Relationship issues
- Self harm
- Sexual Abuse
- Sexuality
- Sexual problems
- Sleep issues and insomnia
- Spiritual crisis and spiritual awakenings
- Stress and anxiety
- Suicide and suicidal ideation
- Transitions and Change
- Trauma
- Work Related Issues
My Training
I am a UKCP and ACPP accredited psychotherapist. I hold a Masters degree in Mindfulness-based psychotherapy from The Karuna Institute in Devon and Middlesex University, an in-depth 5 year training.
I am also Co-founder of the British mental health initiative SafelyHeldSpaces.org, an organisation working towards a more expanded, trauma informed vision of mental health support. I specialise in supporting families with loved ones experiencing altered states, commonly referred to as psychosis.
I also co-facilitate workshops both in the UK and internationally with veterans and serving military experiencing post-traumatic stress and trauma affected sleep. I work regularly alongside the bestselling author and lucid dreaming teacher, Charlie Morley. I specialise in using lucid dream work in tandem with Core Process Psychotherapy as a vehicle for healing trauma.
In addition to my clinical work, I am also a mental health journalist and writer, regularly publishing articles and papers about the importance of working towards a more expanded (less medicalised) vision of how to work with mental and emotional distress. Prior to training as a psychotherapist, I spent over 15 years working in television news as a producer and sub-editor.
I am committed to ongoing professional development and regularly attend courses to further my knowledge and experience. I am in regular supervision with a UKCP accredited supervisor. I am also in personal therapy for my own growth and self-care. I abide by the UKCP code of Ethics.
My Rates
- £70 per 50 minute session for individuals.
- I offer an initial introductory session for £35
You can either call or email me. I’m happy to talk on the telephone about any concerns or questions you may have about the process.
