John McNeil Scott

I am a trainee psychotherapist and counsellor currently working with adult clients under supervision with a leading Scottish counselling charity, working from an existential and pluralistic perspective.

My approach explores meaning, freedom, and choice in the face of life’s challenges, while creating a safe and compassionate space for reflection and growth. I draw on person-centred, narrative, and systemic ideas, adapting therapy to each client’s needs.

I have worked in law, education and church ministry, including international roles in East Asia. These experiences shape my sensitivity to culture, language, and belonging. The joys and sorrows, challenges and benefits of 'exile' - cultural, geographical, personal and spiritual - have been important in my own developing self-understanding, and I bring that into my work.

My interests include identity, sexuality, grief, health, and life transitions. I am a student member of the BACP, NCPS and the Society for Existential Analysis (SEA), committed to ethical and reflective practice.

I work in professionally in English, but can offer informal support also in Mandarin.

Therapeutic Approach

My developing practice draws on

  • Existential therapy – exploring meaning, isolation, freedom, and mortality as conditions of being human.

  • Phenomenological method – attending to each client’s lived experience with openness and curiosity.

  • Person-centred principles – empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness as the foundation of trust.

  • Narrative and systemic awareness – recognising how family, culture, and language shape the stories we live by.

I work collaboratively, believing that the client’s way of being and knowing should guide our shared process.

Background and Interests

I am from Ireland and that is still the 'homeplace of my heart' after many years away. My work and life have also been deeply shaped by cross-cultural and East Asian experiences and relationships.

My life was transformed through an encounter with Taiwan and, decades later, still find myself speaking Mandarin daily. I was a University Chaplain in London, working mainly with international students. Alongside current training, I now work as a Theological College Principal preparing church ministers for their pastoral roles.

These experiences continue to inform my sensitivity to cultural identity, displacement, and communication across languages — themes that often surface in therapy. My interests include:

  • Cross-cultural and identity issues

  • Sexuality, gender, and belonging

  • Grief, loss, and end-of-life concerns

  • Living with chronic health conditions (including HIV)

  • Meaning, spirituality and existential resilience

  • MSc Counselling

    Abertay University, Dundee (in progress)

  • COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills

    University of Strathclyde

  • Professional Doctorate in Ministry

    Chicago Theological Seminary

  • LLM in East Asian Law

    SOAS University of London

  • 國際華語研習所

    National Taiwan University

  • Bachelor of Divinity (Hons)

    Aberdeen University

  • Bachelor of Arts (Hons)

    Politics and Philosophy

    University College Dublin

  • Student Member, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

    01026999

  • Student Member, National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)

    STU2550

  • Student Member, Society for Existential Analysis (SEA)

Education
Professional Development

I actively participate in professional development and conferences, and other workshops on pluralistic practice, ethics, and online counselling. I maintain ongoing personal therapy and supervision, integrating self-reflection as a core element of professional growth.

Selected Seminars, Conferences and Courses
Core Skills in Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy

Existential-Humanistic Institute

Bringing Wisdom to the World: Applied Philosophy as Existential Therapy

Existential Academy

Wisdom in Practice - from Existential Training to Therapeutic Encounter

Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe (FETE) Congress (Rome 2025)

Introduction to Existential Therapy

University of Oxford Continuing Education

woman wearing yellow long-sleeved dress under white clouds and blue sky during daytime
The Heroic Ordinary

The ordinary is heroic.

My practice seeks to embody an abiding conviction that everyday lives - the lives that we all live - are unavoidably and unmistakably heroic.

Those who seek help in living through counselling and psychotherapy (our clients) instance a desire to live out the full blossoming of their unique existence.

Facing our limits and living with them, facing our challenges and overcoming them, facing life squarely and honestly, inhabiting our unique existence with love, insight and solidarity -- this is the heroic stuff of authentic human life.

I will be sharing more on this theme and related ones at The Heroic Ordinary.

There is not much there yet... but please stay tuned...

© 2025 John McNeil Scott