An introduction to John Wilson, our Director of Bereavement Services at York St John Communities Centre.
I’m John, and by all normal behaviour I should have retired years ago. Instead, I have become part of the Communities Centre furniture – one of the antique pieces.
2017 was an important year for me. At age 70. I retired from a job I loved at Saint Catherine’s Hospice Bereavement Support Service in Scarborough. The plan had been to relax with my wife Sandra, tend our garden together, teach myself wood carving and cabinet making and continue with the rock band I have played drums with for more years than I care to remember. So it wasn’t going to be a sedentary existence, but neither was it going to involve the loss and grief I had worked with for 18 years. Or anything involving reading and writing serious stuff.
In the same year, March 2017, I completed my PhD thesis at York St John, based on my work at St Catherine’s Hospice. That’s when my plans for putting my feet up began to unravel. My viva voce external examiner, Professor, Bill Stiles, a gently spoken American Angophile, invited me to join his international colleagues in counselling and psychotherapy research. Before I knew where I was, I was presenting my research in Oxford, and dining at Balliol College in dinner jacket and shiny shoes, alongside members of the world’s leading psychotherapy research community.
I guess I could still have escaped, but November loomed. The graduation ceremony in the splendour of York Minster. Archbishop John Sentamu, a man who I had always admired, and who once played my djembe (Google it!) in an African drum workshop I was leading was, at the time, York St John Chancellor. After handing out degrees and shaking hundreds of hands, he delivered his speech. It was a version of the parable of the talents, about going out into the world and using your qualification for the common good.
So there we are. I joined the Communities Centre shortly afterwards, and York St John University has been kind enough to award me honorary fellowship to continue researching and writing. To be honest, I love every minute of the value and purpose it gives me. Since I ‘retired’ I have written a second book for bereaved people to find their way through grief, and with Professor Lynne Gabriel, we’re writing another book for therapists working with loss and grief. Plus various other pieces of writing, articles and book chapters along the way. The best bit is still supporting grieving people in various innovative ways. I also teach large audiences from all over the world, thanks to the wonders of internet technology.
And yes I manage to garden and play in a rock band. The wood carving and cabinet making is on hold.
~
You can find out more about John’s work through his website and also the York St John Communities Centre’s Bereavement Service which John heads up.
