About this event
As self identifying women, working in the therapeutic field, we are not only supporting our clients but are also navigating the world shaped by patriarchal structures ourselves. This session invites counsellors to explore how we, too, carry the weight of societal trauma in our personal and professional lives. We will reflect on how patriarchy affects our own mental health, self-worth, and the way we engage in our work, and discuss how to hold space for both ourselves and our clients in this shared experience. Together, we’ll examine therapeutic approaches and intersectional identities, acknowledging the deep, often hidden wounds caused by systemic gender inequality, and explore how we can support women in healing these wounds while simultaneously holding our own. By integrating self-awareness, collective healing, and empathy, we’ll explore ways to foster resilience and empowerment—not only for our clients but for ourselves as we continue to challenge and navigate the structures that shape our lives and work.
All genders are welcome for the panel. It would be a welcome act of solidarity from our colleagues who aren’t women for you to come and listen to our experiences. Following process space will be for self identifying women includes trans women and women assigned female at birth or socialised as women.
ZOOM
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
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All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
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Salma Mohamed
I’m Salma Mohamed, a neurodivergent Somali mental health professional, qualitative (IPA) researcher exploring the lived experiences of the Somali diaspora, and social justice activist. I work as an Integrative Children and Young People’s psychotherapist (BACP final-year trainee) across schools, a mental health charity, and a domestic violence organization in Sheffield. I’m also known for developing well-known community well-being workshops and projects accessible in multiple languages, as well as delivering culturally competent training alongside MAAN Somali Mental Health Charity. As a Black, Muslim, Somali woman, I navigate spaces never built with either part of my identity in mind. Neither for the community I serve. In fact, when I forget this reality – I am always reminded. Visibility is a risk, survival is a fight, and expertise is questioned before it is heard. I see this daily, from Eurocentric clinical training rooted in a one-size-fits-all approach to institutions that quietly resist change. The weight of pushing against these forces as a young woman still navigating her own journey is exhausting, but my work is driven by something deeper than resilience.. it’s about dismantling the very structures that make resilience necessary. I’m here to take part in the discussion on the hidden cost of existing in these spaces and explore why we must fight so hard just to be seen.
Hannah Jackson-McCamley (she/her)
Hannah Jackson-McCamley (she/her) is a counselling psychotherapist with a busy private practice in central London. She specialises in bereavement, relationships, trauma and sexual assault, the latter informed by her experience working for The Havens, a service supporting those that have experienced sexual violence. She has also worked in the funeral industry, fashion and advertising, and studied Politics & History at the LSE, and has an interest in how psychotherapy can contribute to social justice and equity.
Jo Shaw
Jo Shaw is an integrative psychotherapist practising in London and West Kent. She received her MA from Regent’s University, London in 2024 and has a Level 2 qualification in Narrative Therapy from the Dulwich Centre, Adelaide. She’s currently studying for a GSRD Diploma with Rainbow Minds in Dublin.
Jo sees a variety of clients, presenting with a wide range of issues. About half her practice is comprised of LGBTQI+ individuals. As a trans woman, dealing with escalating prejudice and hostility on both societal and professional levels, she is strongly committed to working with marginalised groups suffering the effects of minority stress and structural oppression. Jo is a member of BACP, Feminist Therapy Network and Therapists Against Conversion Therapy and Transphobia (TACTT). She cancelled her UKCP membership after it left the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy.
Rebecca McKinney
Rebecca McKinney is a humanistic counsellor, clinical supervisor and counselling lecturer based outside of Edinburgh. Prior to training in counselling, she worked for many years in community development and community-led regeneration in both local government and third sector settings. A published author of three novels, she also has a PhD in social anthropology from Edinburgh University and has had a lifelong interest in the relationships between identity, community, creativity and mental health.
Helene Fletcher
I have been practising as a psychotherapist for 30 years now.
Since entering my 70s, my way of working psychotherapeutically is becoming more relational and embodied, which has given me more confidence in trying to practice my feminist theoritical position (personal is political, knowledge is situated and limited, there is no one truth).
Also I am becoming more comfortable with having conversations about how we ,women, internalise the fundamental patriarchal capitalist oppression/agression (sexism), and in so doing, oppress ourselves and other women. I wish to support our ability for compassion, solidarity and cooperation as well as offer of sanctuary to all women.
