John Barclay

he/him

cis-gender

I am a pakeha registered clinical psychologist who completed a law degree at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and was admitted to the Bar prior to retraining. Following a working holiday in England, I spent many years working for a large accountancy firm before realising this was not for me and returning to university to study Psychology.

While training I worked as a group counsellor for a stopping violence agency then worked for five years in hospital based mental health services with adults, adolescents, children, and adults with substance abuse issues.

I finished my psychology training in 2003 and began with University's Student Counselling service in 2006. I enjoy working as a counsellor again after stints in leadership and as a Health Improvement Practitioner (HIP). My counselling approach is informed by Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Process-Experiential (Emotion Focussed) Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).  I co-designed then co-facilitated the Student Counselling sleep development workshop with our former psychiatrist for a decade. Nowadays, I co-facilitate our Wisemind Group (a DBT emotion regulation skills group) and routinely use Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT) to help students reach their goals.

I feel fortunate to have raised three healthy adult children who continue to educate me on the ways of the world. In my spare time I enjoy tramping, cycling, cooking, reading, movies, and catching up with friends.

I have enormous confidence in the benefits flowing from counselling and psychotherapy and feel privileged to be of service.