Kaspa Thompson

Training, qualifications & experience

On a recent training weekend focused on outdoor therapy I was talking about my lack of skills as a bushman, I don’t know how to start a fire from scratch or know what plants are safe to eat — but I am an expert in exploring the wilderness that is our minds.

I have been seeing therapy clients since 2011, and my personal exploration of the mind started before then. My curiosity about how people work was inspired by exploring my own mind in my meditation practice, and by witnessing the suffering of myself and others. Surely there must be a way out of this? I thought.

Becoming a psychotherapist has offered me complete set of tools for supporting healing and change in others.

I have a Diploma in Counselling in Tariki Trust. On this training I learnt how to be with another person, about how habits and compulsive behaviours are created, and how to create space for change.

I have an Advanced Diploma in Embodied Relational Therapy. This training supported me to see the mind and body as a whole system, and to work with physical sensations as well as thoughts and emotions.

I have a certificate in ‘Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS): A Revolutionary & Transformative Treatment’ and ‘Internal Family Systems Step By Step’ from PESI and Psychotherapy Networker.

IFS supports working safely with clients and going at their pace. It allows me to explore different parts of the clients experience and to heal trauma.

In 2019 I am training in Wild Therapy. Wild Therapy includes working therapeutically outside in the natural world, and also considering what our nature as human-animals means to the therapeutic process.

I have a Post-Graduate Certificate in Chaplaincy. My undergraduate degree is in Drama.

In December 2017 I was given the title Acharya, which means teacher, by my own Buddhist teacher. I have been ordained as a Buddhist priest since 2007.

My Buddhist name is Kaspalita, which means ‘protected by the light’, but everyone calls me Kaspa.