About us

The ideas and vision for Ffynnon PPD began in early 2007 when Jonathan and Susie Skipper began drawing up the

plans to host affordable and accessible personal and professional development for counsellors, therapists, pastoral workers and people in the care professions.

The primary vision for Ffynnon was for a residential centre based in North Wales and to host larger day-events to include the border counties. Having created a comprehensive plan for the day-events and formulated a flexible business plan for the residential centre, Ffynnon PPD came into being.

In April 2008 Susie and Jonathan moved from Brighton on the South Coast of England to the North Wales border, close to the area where Jonathan grew up, this was for a number of reasons, one significant influence was a healthy desire to utilise his experience as a therapist and trainer back where he had spent his formative years by developing Ffynnon’s services.

Another noteworthy reason for moving to North Wales was their desire to raise and nurture their first child in a more peaceful and rural setting. Maybelle was born in July 2008 and is now a beautiful little one and a half year old girl who is bursting with energy, chatter and smiles; she is ‘delightfully busy and exhausting to hang out with at times!’

This venture has been wholeheartedly encouraged and supported by family, friends and colleagues alike and this has been reflected in the attentive involvement of our dear friend Brian Thorne who is the Patron of Ffynnon PPD.

Jonathan Skipper

Jonathan is the Director of Ffynnon PPD. He has a master’s degree in counselling studies from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, a diploma in working with adult survivors of childhood abuse and qualifications in person centred art therapy. He is also a professional artist and worked as the Honorary Art Therapist at University College London hospital on the palliative care unit. His counselling experience has been; working as a Counsellor/ therapist in private practise and as a trainer and group facilitator for a number of institutions and organisations including The London City Lit and Crawley College in West Sussex.

In addition to this Jonathan has worked as a designer and illustrator when a large part of his work was focused in the record industry, he has hosted (ran and worked in) a night shelter for the homeless in Watford, managed a drug and alcohol helpline and counselling service in South London and whilst working as a grounds man at a public school in Hertfordshire, he was part of a youth work team at his local Church.

Jonathan's heart remains centred in his commitment to the ethos of the person centred approach and in what he describes as liberated Christian orthodoxy and his passion continues to be focused on people in need; people perhaps seeking a confidant or comfort, people outside the care of established communities, and people on the edge and on the fringes seeking a depth of understanding and commitment that could offer individual and unique opportunities to flourish.

Jonathan sees Ffynnon PPD as an exciting, long dreamed of project where he can develop new ideas and skills, both personally and professionally, whilst offering a unique contribution to the development of others. He feels it is important and necessary to devote his time and energy into the running and development of Ffynnon and related endeavours, with that in mind he chooses not practising as a therapist at the present time.

(To find out more about Jonathan you can visit www.skipperart.co.uk and go to his personal reflections which are updated when he finds the time and space.)

Susie Skipper

Susie has an honours degree in Behavioural Sciences, and has a wealth of experience in management and organisation. She feels proud to be involved in Ffynnon PPD, a project which offers valuable resources to professionals, individuals and communities alike.

Susie's open and caring outlook towards others is grounded in her own personal faith and experience of Christianity that has always been family and community centred. Susie cherishes diversity in people's different life experiences and beliefs, and the outworking of her beliefs has resulted in her involvement in a variety of community projects both in the charitable and public sectors.

Susie's commitment to her values and her work has been evident from being the Children's Complaints Manager for a county council, through to being a full time mother whilst handling the administration of Ffynnon’s events.

Susie is a qualified NNEB Nursery Nurse and was involved in setting up a family centre in a deprived area of Scotland. Following the completion and launch of the family centre she worked as part of the team caring for children, young people and their families. She carried out the groundwork for a Sure Start project in South London, worked in childcare development and as a crime analyst for the London Borough of Merton, has volunteered as a counsellor at Childline and worked for a holiday company across Europe whose client group was young adults.

Susie's hope and vision is that Ffynnon will be a project that embraces difference and will also be a place where enlightenment and growth develop.

Lay Cannon Professor Brian Thorne

Brian is our patron, he is Emeritus Professor of Counselling at the University of East Anglia, Norwich and Co-founder of The Norwich Centre, the first counselling service and training agency in Europe committed to the person-centred approach to therapy in the tradition of Dr. Carl Rogers.

Brian is a prominent member of the international person-centred community and a prolific author. His work covers the fields of counselling, education and pastoral theology and in recognition of this interdisciplinary contribution he was made Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral in 2005. His many books include 'Person-Centred Counselling in Action' (3rd edition, 2007 co-authored with Professor Dave Mearns), 'The Mystical Power of Person-Centred Therapy (2002) and 'Behold the Man' (New edition, 2006). Currently he directs the Diploma in Spiritual Accompaniment at the Norwich Centre and lectures and facilitates groups widely both in the UK and abroad.

Jonathan’s personal reflection on the statement: ‘The vision for Ffynnon PPD is underpinned by our understanding of and commitment to the ethos of the person centred approach and our own personal experience of, and belief in Christian spirituality.'

This is a faith, a way of being, that believes that at their core all people have a tendency (the actualising tendency) to become more successfully who it is they have in them to become, fully functioning and Christ like, in the manner and the image of God. Added to this I believe that we can be more Christ like when we are most ourselves in that Christ came to make us like Himself. In becoming more ourselves (engaged in an actualising process) we are growing into the mature personhood of Christ.

The person centred approach is often misunderstood or perhaps misinterpreted as a secular discipline. However for myself the approach offered me a language and a framework that enhanced my deeply held Christian beliefs, in fact it was my first full experience of an approach to living in the 20th and now 21st century that was fully accepting, understanding, open and nourishing of me in my Christian spirituality and tradition.

The central assumption of the person centred approach is that a person can be trusted to find their own way forward in life and in their struggles, the actualising tendency drives us to make the best we can of our circumstances.

The approach believes that as individuals we have vast resources for development, reserves that offer us the opportunity to grow towards the fulfilment of our unique identities. Our task is to create a ‘growth promoting environment’ to generate new conditions of relationship where growth for all concerned is encouraged, a space for individuals to flourish and a place where community prevails.

This ‘environment’ is characterised by three requirements these are referred to in the approach as the three ‘core conditions’. The first requirement is realness, genuineness, or congruence of a person, a companion or a group. The second component is a person, a companion or a group’s ability to offer another total acceptance, a cherishing, an unconditional positive regard. The third element is empathy; empathic understanding.

Person centred Christian living is in my view a relational, inclusive and experiential life (as in the gospels) that seeks harmony and connectedness. It is a lived faith of relatedness to the mystical and the human; of union and challenge where value, trust, authenticity and compassion are objectives that can be achieved through an awareness of a transcendent dimension to existence. For me my encounter with the person centred approach expanded and further enlightened the nature of Christ Jesus, of God and Spirit as a relational Trinity.

I believe that it is our task to create an environment; circumstances where connection and growth can flourish (a growth promoting environment) and that we need to be open and responsive to windows of opportunity (empathic responsiveness) where Gods creative energy is at work. I suggest that there is a longing from deep within which is a response to a calling from without. We cry out to God and God calls us to Himself, like a kind of circular harmonious calling or singing of lovers one to another.

In the light of Divine grace, I recognise that we sometimes turn away from God; we are wilful and we do wrong. For this I believe we require forgiveness and live as a result of an outpouring of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. He redeems us from our isolation, inspires us with His love and brings us back into unity.

True to my own experience, my person centred discipline as a man, as a therapist and as a member of the church I add my voice to the overwhelming evidence that a person seeking companionship or help feels profoundly accepted when they encounter someone who does not hide behind a mask of expert, authoritarian or holy superiority and who genuinely wishes to understand, know and love them without conditions.

This quality of presence pierces isolation and offers a liberation of mind and spirit that draws us back into relationship with self, with others and with God. Added to this, friendships, relationships, family and community do, I believe, thrive on such values and the consequential ‘freedom to be’ that has perhaps only been glimpsed in the past will be evident in the full myriad of human experiencing if we can only wake up to the challenge these principles bring to our hearts and our minds if we allow them to.

I write this in the assurance of God's eternal blessing and in the knowledge that before we were even made we were loved by God; we acknowledge that all are infinitely beloved of Him today and forever more.