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'Human stories are vast and wonderful and it’s a privilege to listen' - Counselling tutor John explains what drives him on
- ciaran583
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
We'd like to introduce you to John Bristow.
He has just joined the team at the New Futures Project as our counselling tutor, overseeing the training we provide to the therapists of the future.
When we learned John is a cracking writer, we asked him to tell us about himself and what motivates him.
He agreed - and this is what he came up with. We think it's great.
Find out about our counselling service here while details of our counselling training courses led by John and his colleagues can be found here
"It all started in a rather simple but profound way. I was volunteering as a Samaritan, mostly just listening." John writes.
"At first, I wasn’t sure if it was helping anyone. I wasn’t giving advice or doing anything clever. Just being there.
"But people kept telling me they felt better. They’d say things like: 'Thanks for being there' or 'I feel calmer now'.
"That made me stop and think. Just listening was making a difference. It planted a seed. Quietly, but firmly.
"I wanted to understand how something so human, so basic, could feel so powerful to someone in distress.
"From there, I moved into more structured peer support roles. I started noticing things. Things I couldn’t unsee.
"So many people weren’t getting the kind of help they actually needed. There was no shortage of services, but there was a lack of something human in the middle of it all.
"People were falling through gaps, being passed around. They were treated as cases or problems, not as people. And I couldn’t shake that.
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"I wanted to offer something different, something real. That’s what nudged me into formal training.
"I signed up for Level 2 while still working. Juggling things. It was a bit of a leap, but it felt right. Like I was finally heading somewhere that made sense.
"Level 3 asked more of me. I had to reflect. Properly. Look at how I worked, what I believed, how I responded to others.
"It was demanding, but it made me curious to go further. I could feel something shifting in me.
"That’s what led me into Level 4, where things really changed. Not just the intensity of the course, but the requirement for personal therapy. I ended up doing 60 hours.
"At first I thought of it as a tick-box. But it wasn’t. It became a mirror. I began to connect things in my own story. Patterns. Wounds I hadn’t faced. Beliefs I’d inherited or built without question.
"My therapy gave me a new sense of what healing could actually feel like. And it changed how I saw the work.
"I wasn’t just learning how to support others, I was experiencing what it meant to be truly heard.
"During my placements, I worked in a drug and alcohol service and a young person’s agency.
"The contrast between those two settings was huge, but both taught me more than I could have learned in a classroom.
"There were days I left feeling like I hadn’t helped at all, but then a quiet shift would happen - a young person would stay in the room for the full session, someone in recovery would talk about hope.
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"I began to understand that it wasn’t about progress you could measure easily. It was about holding steady when someone’s world felt anything but. Just being real. Just staying with them.
"After qualifying, I began working with Oxfordshire Mind. My focus there was psychoeducation. Helping people understand what was going on inside them. Making sense of emotions, thoughts, behaviours.
"It wasn’t therapy, but it was still powerful. I’d run courses on things like managing strong emotions, building healthy relationships, or understanding anxiety.
"The group format gave people space to see they weren’t alone. I remember one session where a man, who’d been silent until then, suddenly said: 'I thought it was just me'.
"That kind of moment sticks. It reminded me how isolated people can feel. And how just naming something out loud can change it.
"That work helped me realise I wanted to go further into teaching. I wanted to help people training to become counsellors. People who were standing where I once stood, nervous, uncertain, but full of something honest and human.
"I knew what that felt like. I still do. Becoming a clinical supervisor was part of that. I wanted to hold space for new counsellors, help them think, grow, doubt themselves, then grow again.
"I know what it means to have someone believe in you, especially when you’re struggling to believe in yourself.
"Being a counsellor is, in itself, a privilege. We are allowed into people’s lives at a time when they are asking big questions about who they are and what they want.
"It is not like any other relationship. There’s something sacred about it. Quiet and respectful.
READ MORE: Counselling should be accessible to anyone who needs it' - talk to us if you're struggling
"The work is different every single time. No two clients are ever the same. I’ve clocked up thousands of hours by now, but I still feel that sense of awe when someone shares something they’ve never said before.
"It never becomes ordinary. That’s the truth of it.
"To end, I always carry with me something my own therapist once said to me. This was during my personal therapy, right at the end of my time with him, I asked: 'What advice would you give me going forward?'.
"He paused, thought deeply and responded with genuine warmth: 'No matter who you see, or how often you see them, just when you think you’ve heard it all, just when you think there is nothing new to hear, remember this, never be surprised', which is ironic because I am always surprised.
"I’ve never forgotten that. It reminds me to stay open. To keep listening and to never take this work for granted.
"Human stories are vast and wonderful; it’s a privilege to listen, and we all have them. Perhaps… if you heard mine, you never know, you may also be surprised."
Our services are provided by qualified counsellors and those in training, working closely with both the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body, (CPCAB), and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, (BACP), to ensure all counselling we provide is ethical and fit for purpose.
The New Futures Project offers a comprehensive welfare and counselling service for women and young people dealing with sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, trafficking, poverty and debt, substance use or mental ill-health.
Call us on 0116 251 0803 or send us a message at: info@new-futures.org.uk
You can find us at 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 0PE.
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