A proper introduction (for old friends & new)
Who I am, how I got here and how I work with people, over a cuppa and a proper introduction.
Hi love,
We've had a lovely flurry of new faces around here lately and I'm so glad you decided to subscribe. For those of you who have been knocking around for a while - don't disregard it just yet, I promise there'll be something helpful/insightful/interesting in here for you too.
This newsletter is home to my thoughts as a therapist and nature-based coach. It's a space for movement practice, meditation, musings on living with multiple chronic illnesses, and becoming a first-time mum at the ripe old age of 36. It's a bit of everything, because that's honestly how my life works.
I wanted to write to you properly and share a bit more about my background and what I actually do here.
How I got here
Beth Fuller Wellness was born when I left teaching in 2019. It's had a few different names along the way, but after a good nudge from Eleanor at Number 75 Design, I finally settled on just being me. Beth Fuller - no clever branding required.
I left teaching after experiencing awful burnout, made worse by endometriosis and fibromyalgia that were both undiagnosed at the time. I was tested for all sorts before that, including MS and rheumatoid arthritis and those medical mysteries left me unable to process everything else going on around me. I was leading a small team, running research projects, training teachers. Eventually my body simply gave in.
In the search for what came next, I knew I wanted to support people. I'd known that since my GCSEs, when I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. My science grades had other ideas, so I trained as a teacher instead, and I was good at it. I loved coaching my team and my trainees. I loved mentoring. When I eventually left teaching, it was that same love of coaching, one I'd first found back in 2015, that I went on to pursue.
Why I retrained as a therapist
Once I'd been coaching for a while, I noticed that the people coming to see me needed something deeper. They needed real, trauma-informed therapy and that's what made me realise I needed to pivot. I needed to retrain so I could offer the depth of practice my clients deserved. Plenty of coaches feel comfortable holding that kind of space without the training behind it, but it never sat right with me. I believe that moving forward means understanding, at least in part, how we got to where we are, and the patterns that brought us here.
So I trained as a psychotherapeutic counsellor. It was a two-year course, and I completed it while recovering from surgery for endometriosis that left me bed-bound for eight weeks. It carried on through a high-risk pregnancy with a lot of complications, and through the birth of my daughter, who spent a while in neonatal care and still has regular appointments now (writing this reminds me of all the studying I did with her in the sling).
As part of that training, I needed to complete 100 hours of clinical placement, and I was lucky enough to do mine at Hope Meadows Equine Recovery CIC.
Finding my herd, quite literally
Hope Meadows is a non-profit made up of psychotherapists, counsellors, and a counselling psychologist. We work alongside the herd of horses who live there, offering a genuinely special kind of therapeutic experience. The horses bring a third presence into the therapeutic relationship, something happens in the way people are able to express themselves and to sit with the stillness that so often follows. It's a fascinating way to work.
That placement led me to working with people from age 14 right up to their mid-seventies, and that breadth of experience has been invaluable. I never wanted to leave, so I stayed on in an employed role. I now lead their therapeutic alternative provision, an educational setting that's choice-led, low-demand, therapeutic and built around young people's wellbeing. I work alongside surrounding schools and county councils to support some of their most vulnerable young people. It's an extraordinary privilege.
I also get to offer therapy sessions there which is a genuinely special way to work. Being surrounded by such experienced counsellors and psychologists, with peer supervision that's second to none, has taught me things I simply wouldn't have learned in private practice alone. Nothing feels too big or too small to bring to the table, and I'm endlessly grateful for the work we do there.
Reopening my private practice
It finally feels like the right time to reopen my private practice, in a different shape to my old coaching work. It's exciting and it's going to intentionally stay really small. I'm talking four spaces a week, maximum. So if you've ever felt a nudge to go deeper with me, I'd love to hold that space for you. Once those four spaces fill, I'll move to a waiting list, which feels like the most ethical way for me to work. I've thought hard about how to stay within my scope of practice, because you deserve a therapist whose mind is fully in the room with you, not half a world away.
How a session actually works
Whether it's coaching or therapy, the shape of a session is fairly similar. I work online or outside, which is a genuinely special way to hold space. We always start with some grounding, a chance to arrive in your body, or if we're outside, a chance to walk. If you'd rather walk while we talk on the phone during an online session, I love that for you. Walking gives you that lovely bilateral stimulation, letting both sides of the brain talk to each other, which helps with grounding in a way that's simple but powerful.
My approach to coaching
I offer a single, deeper session I call an Unravelling session. Some clients come with business thoughts they need a sounding board for, wanting help unpicking it all and building a plan. Others arrive with a decision they need to make, or one they can feel stuck in their body. Following an unravelling session, you get voice note or text access to me for 30 days, which builds in a bit of accountability while you put the plan into action.
I also offer longer-term coaching over six months, for when you've got a bigger project on the go or need sustained accountability. People come to this for all sorts of reasons: looking after themselves better, working through a career change, setting up a business, or simply keeping momentum on something they're doing for themselves.
Where my specialism lies
I tend to specialise in burnout and burnout recovery, because it so often shows up during a time of change, a liminal moment that requires real change in order for recovery to happen. My longer-term coaching work is deeply somatic, drawing on breathwork, yoga, forest bathing, and meditation alongside the coaching itself. If we need to touch on the past, we will, but the work is mostly future-focused.
I don't hold you to a weekly rhythm. Some people prefer weekly sessions, others fortnightly or monthly, and some like to book in a quarterly top-up now and again.
Burnout is physical as much as it's mental. There's overwhelming research showing that how our bodies handle stress, and whether that stress response ever gets to complete, plays a huge part in why we burn out. I love working with people on all sorts of things, but supporting burnout recovery is where my real specialism lies. It's what I've spoken about on stages and been featured on in the national press, and after a lot of work, and a fair bit of lived experience, I'll happily say it's what I'm good at. Helping other people avoid what I went through is something of a personal mission.
My approach to therapy
Therapy works the same way. I trained as a pluralistic therapist, which means I draw on whichever parts of different therapeutic approaches are most useful for the person in front of me. That might mean thought trackers, coping mechanisms, or work on radical self-acceptance. It's that flexibility, applying the right approach to the right person, that drew me to this training in the first place.
Alongside that, I bring in the rest of my toolkit where it's helpful: meditation, yoga, breathwork, forest bathing. We work together, as a genuine partnership, because the therapeutic relationship is the most important part of the work. If you don't feel comfortable with your therapist, you won't make the progress you're paying for and deserving.
Before we ever get to therapy together, I offer an introductory call so you can find out whether my warm, straight-talking way of working suits you. We ask each other questions. If I don't think I'm the right fit, I won't take your money. I'll point you towards other professionals I know and trust instead, because being ethical is both my most important business value and my most important personal one. Finding the right therapist matters, and I'll always tell you honestly if I'm not the one.
I offer medium and long-term therapy. There's real value in short-term work, but I firmly believe the magic tends to happen from session eight onwards, because it can take five sessions just to start opening up. That's completely okay, especially if you're coming to me for trauma-based work. Learning to trust another person, and trusting yourself enough to open up, both take time.
*A note for the mummas on maternity leave. While you're navigating possibly the biggest transformation of your life so far, the government decides that's the moment to slash your pay. It doesn't sit right with me, so if you're on maternity leave, your therapy sessions come at 50% off. I believe wholeheartedly that for our little ones to thrive, their mummas need to thrive too.
What clients tell me
The feedback I hear most, whether from therapy or coaching clients, always comes back to the same feeling: they felt safe, they felt held and they felt cared for. In coaching especially, I sometimes describe it as using my big sister voice, and I'll always tell you I'm in your corner.
Some of us have never had anyone unconditionally in our corner, and that's exactly what I try to be for my clients. It's not just about listening and nodding along. Helping people feel truly heard and understood is some of the most important work we do as therapists.
A note on putting this out there
I'm genuinely thrilled you're here, and that you've taken the time out of your day to read what I write. It's an incredible privilege to do this work, and I don't take that for granted.
If any of this resonates and you'd like to chat about how I work, or whether working together might be right for you either hit reply to this or pop your enquiry into this form and I'll be back to you as soon as possible. And please do share this with someone who might need it. Our best decisions about who to work with, whether that's a plasterer, a plumber, or a therapist, so often come from a recommendation.
Sending love from Lincolnshire. Speak soon.
Beth x