Meet John Paterson
Conversations That Matter
______
M. Couns; Grad. Dip. Management Studies, Adv. Dip. Couns.; Family Therapy Diploma Theology, Cert. Supervision, Cert. Spiritual Direction.
Greetings, I’m John.
At the age of seventeen I entered the Navy as an officer, and I had little time for religion during the next twenty years – I turned my back on God and walked away. After initial officer training I specialized in Hydrographic Surveying and spent most of my surveying career at sea around Western Australia, Cairns, northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and two years in the United Kingdom on exchange with the Royal Navy. In 1987 I was given my first of what was to be three commands. After twenty years at sea I was posted ashore. Thus began a new phase of life as I returned to my Christian faith when my marriage collapsed. God’s saving grace brought me into the sanctity of a Christian community which supported, loved and shaped my spiritual journey for the years ahead. This was a very special time of healing for me, and the community gathered around me to support me as a single dad to raise my two joys Rhiannon and Nadine. Seeking to understand both my faith, and life journeys, I undertook training as a Christian counsellor in 1994.
My Christian Journey.
Community life was very important to my Christian journey. I am a self-confessed ‘struggler’ and pilgrim trying to navigate a different journey now. These last 25 years have been about re-learning, and endeavouring to understand what it means to be an Australian Christian man. It’s been a hard and sometimes lonely journey but I haven’t been alone. It is a real privilege to have walked alongside men and women, hearing and sharing in their journeys along many different paths. Maybe what brings me to this place in my spiritual journey of companioning others are these shared stories and shared journeys?
2002 was a big year. After thirty years in the Navy I was called in a new direction as a Professional Counsellor. Rhiannon and Nadine had grown up, and married fine men. So I headed to St Petersburg to lead a team into Russia under the Love For Kids banner. Dr Bruce Litchfield, founder of the Australian Institute for Family Counselling asked me to join the counselling training institute. I met Susan who had invited me to be a partner in a private practice Connect Counselling, and introduced me to St. John’s Counselling Service at Darlinghurst where I counselled one day a week. Susan and I also became life partners when we married in 2003. It was a time of very mixed emotions, as I moved into counselling and marriage and relocated to Sydney. This took me away from the Wollongong community I had been a part of for more than four years.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand
-Psalm 40:2
John and Susan with Larry and Rachel Crabb
Seeking to return to our country roots Susan and I moved to Lismore in September 2004 and re-established Connect Counselling in the northern rivers. We found our church community at the One-in-Christ Fellowship, a non-denominational Christian community that worships at the Lismore Soup Kitchen, Winsome Hotel – a place of acceptance, safety and sense of community. We remain part of this community to this day.
I completed a Masters of Counselling at Armidale, University of New England in 2010 and continued to work with AIFC as a Centre Director, senior staff trainer and finally the Academic Manger until resigning in 2013. Susan and I continued to practice counselling, grow in our faith journey, and companion others on their journeys. In 2011 Susan and I had undertaken a workshop with Dr Larry Crabb at the American Association of Christian Counsellors conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr Crabb’s transition from counselling to spiritual direction very much spoke into our own experience in the counselling room. In 2015 Susan and I undertook to study with NewWay Ministries, Dr Larry Crabb’s School of Christian Spiritual Direction, and completed these studies in November 2017.
The last 20 years of being with people and hearing their stories, walking alongside them during their times of struggles, and sharing in their hopes, makes life come alive for me. It has reinforced the privileged relationship built up in the sanctity of the counselling room and highlighted the sacred nature of the conversations about life and meaning that people desire to share, and that lie deep within us all, yet remain mostly unexpressed. What I have learned from these conversations has enriched my own spiritual journey and has led me to now offer Conversations that Matter to those who want to deepen their spiritual relationship with God. ‘No one should have to face their struggles alone’, says Larry Crabb. I agree. So, for those who are on a Christian journey, and who are seeking to share their lives with a fellow spiritual traveller through conversations about the things in life that really matter – about the things of ‘ultimate concern’ which Paul Tillich emphasised – I would be honoured to meet you. It is my hope and vision to see people come to know God intimately and become fully alive in Him.
John’s Reflections
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Christian Spiritual Journeying
A professional and confidential Christian spiritual direction practice around Lismore, offering spiritual direction to people in the Northern Rivers and right across Australia via online meetings.
