Bill Petrie
Online
Transformational Coach and Spiritual Mentor
M.A. Clinical Psychology (UCT)
Certificate in Cognitive Therapy (Oxford University)
Diploma in Advanced Transpersonal Psychotherapy (CCPE, London)
Learning to Live and Love Your Authentic Self
Most of the people that I work with are deeply committed to their personal growth.
They have oftenexplored:
their psychological issues
their relationships
their work
and their health
But they have found that:
Something vital is still missing.
This inner knowing often leads them to explore even more deeply and they find that they want:
To live more authentically
To find purpose and meaning
To cultivate a sense of inner peace
To find and deepen their own spiritual perspective
And to integrate all of this - in a practical way - into an extraordinary life
My approach is an integrative one that weaves together
coaching, psychology, creativity, shamanism and spirituality
in order to create the conditions for profound transformation.
If you feel drawn to explore further:
The first step is to book a free 20-minute consultation.
You are welcome to come just as you are.
Together, we will explore the best options for you.
A Few of the Ways in which We can Work Together:
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Transformational Coaching and Mentoring
So many people are trying to life a life that has been conditioned by their upbringing, their culture, their friends, their partners and by social media.
The result, at best, is a life that lacks a deep sense of fulfillment.
At worst, it leads to the stratospheric rise in depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders that we see happening on a global scale.
In truth, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.
Your life is unique.
So, in this approach, we work together to discover a new way - your way - a way that leads to far more authentic living.
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Learning to Live with Purpose and Meaning
We all need purpose and meaning in our lives and we tend to try to find these by using our thinking. If we try to live life this way, we often end up feeling that something vital is missing.
The answer lies in the felt-sense in the body.
Something is meaningful to us because we feel it feels meaningful to us. And, we find purpose by feeling what it is that we are drawn towards.
Unfortunately, most of us ‘overthink’ things because we are out of touch with our bodies.
So, in this work, we focus on re-attuning you to you to the felt-sense in your body so that you develop your own guidance system that will be invaluable going forward in your life.
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Presence, Mindfulness & Your Spiritual Life
Whether we call it Consciousness, the Universe, Essence, Buddha Mind, Christ Consciousness, God, Presence or the Ground of Being, the recognition of something vastly greater than our individual selves is a vital maturational development.
While recognizing that each person’s spiritual path is unique, in this work we drawn on the wisdom traditions of the world in order to help you to explore and to deepen your own spiritual life.
Through this work, you will not only develop greater presence and self-compassion, you will also find far greater access to kindness, compassion, gratitude, joy and wisdom.
And, with the deepening of a spiritual life comes much greater resilience and inner peace.
About Bill
I have devoted my life to helping people both psychologically and spiritually.
Because of the breadth and depth of my experience and training, my work often goes beyond the bounds of traditional coaching or psychotherapy to encompass a much wider view.
That having been said, we start where you are - just as you are - and we find what works best for you and your needs at this stage of your unique journey.
Outside of the bounds of my professional life, I am very fortunate to be living with my beloved wife, the artist, Trish Mitchell, in the endless beauty of the English Cotswolds. Photography is my creative joy.
Bill’s Qualifications
All the training has been part of my search for the models, tools and processes that have enabled me to develop the Deep Insights Approach.
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A comprehensive professional training in clinical psychology that included in-depth instruction in counselling and psychotherapy. My Master’s thesis was on an understanding of wilderness experience from a Jungian point of view.
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A two-year post-graduate part-time training in a form of psychotherapy that integrates a spiritual perspective with more traditional psychotherapy.
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An intensive year-long part-time training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – a practical form of psychotherapy that is particularly useful in dealing with anxiety issues and depression.
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A year-long part-time training in psychotherapy supervision.
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This is the two-part practitioner training in a form of psychotherapy (EMDR) that is extremely effective in putting any traumatic memory to rest. Most types of psychological difficulty are caused or precipitated by a trauma of some sort. Both of these trainings were with the originator of EMDR – Francine Shapiro.
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Both EFT and Matrix Reimprinting use a combination of eastern medicine and western psychology to treat traumatic memories. Matrix Reimprinting is an extremely effective development of EFT. I was fortunate to train in both methods with the originator of Matrix Reimprinting – Karl Dawson.
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A vision quest is psychological and spiritual process during which people fast in a natural environment after careful preparation and under proper supervision. The vision quest is a very powerful ritual that is frequently life-transforming. I was very lucky to be trained in the USA by the late Steven Foster and Meredith Little, exceptional teachers in this tradition. Since then, I have run many vision quests both in Africa and in the UK.
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This arduous training as a traditional healer took more than five years to complete. Although I no longer practice as an African healer, I have integrated very valuable elements from this training into my work.
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This was my first graduate qualification and was followed by employment in Microbiology, Medical Biochemistry and Industrial Chemistry laboratories. I later returned to university to study psychology. I am very grateful for this training because it affords me a deep understanding of the scientific perspective - its great value and its limitations.
Bill’s Professional Journey
The most important person in our work is you.
Bearing that in mind, I describe something of my professional journey here in order to give you some idea of the breadth and depth of possibilities in our work.
More than forty years ago, I began an intensive search to find answers to the essential question:
‘How can we live our lives well?’
That search led me to the work of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His understanding transformed my experience of life and ignited in me a fierce passion to help others.
So, I left my job as a medical biochemist and began the long training to be a clinical psychologist.
Many further answers emerged, my life improved significantly, and I went on to establish busy private practices in Cape Town and later in Harley Street, London
Clinical psychology certainly had much to offer but something still felt incomplete. I wanted to deepen my understanding of the treatment of emotional and spiritual difficulties and so I did this by training in several specialised forms of psychotherapy:
Transpersonal Psychotherapy (a therapeutic approach that integrates a spiritual perspective)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Matrix Reimprinting
Many more gems were unearthed but I knew that the search was far from over.
Part of the problem was that clinical psychology and most forms of psychotherapy focus on mental illness.
I wanted a much broader focus that focused on a sense of well-being.
Coaching was one of those professions that had a more positive approach, and it became a valuable part of my work.
But, even with all of this, I still felt that my understanding was far from complete, and so my search for a deeper understanding continued.
Precipitated by a retreat with Ram Dass and teachings by the Dalai Lama in London, I began to immerse myself in both Western and Eastern spiritual traditions. I devoured work by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Adyashanti, Loch Kelly, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Stephan Bodian, John J. Predergast and many others. I went on retreats, including those with Atum O’Kane (a Sufi Master), Sogyal Rinpoche and Eckhart Tolle, and eventually uncovered the invaluable realisation that: within each of us lies a profound presence that is open, peaceful, loving, wise and fundamentally content.
In the late 1990s, I developed a fascination with the therapeutic effects of nature and a curiosity about indigenous shamanic traditions. This led me to train as a Vision Quest Guide in the USA and later as a Doctor of Traditional African Medicine in Botswana, an African shamanic tradition.
Although I no longer practice in a traditional manner, these experiences enriched my approach enormously.
Through them I learned:
The profound healing power of nature
The vital importance of being mindful of the body and the felt-sense in the body
An acute awareness of subtle energy
Numerous tools to ground, balance and connect with various forms of subtle energy
How to access intuitive guidance through the body
The importance of ritual
And, much else besides
Over the last twenty years, I have continued to explore widely, including:
IFS (Internal Family Systems, a highly effective method of working with parts of our psyche)
Polyvagal Theory and its implications (understanding fight, flight, freeze, fawn, collapse responses as well as inducing a sense of well-being and safety through vagus nerve stimulation)
Radical acceptance and Self-compassion
Brain asymmetry (Iain McGilchrist)
Breathwork
Bön, the traditional spiritual and shamanic practice of Tibet
Meditation
Mindfulness
Non-dual awareness (Adyashanti, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Rupert Spira, Stephan Bodian, John J. Prendergast, and others)
And, most importantly, the practical integration of all of this in everyday life.
I am so grateful for all I have managed to explore, and I enjoy seeing the work bear fruit with the people that I work with.
My hope is that it may be of benefit to you, too.