Pema Tolstrup

I came to counselling through an unexpected route. I'd worked as a nurse for years, and when my health made that no longer possible, I needed to find another way to be of service. As a Buddhist nun, being of benefit to others isn't separate from how I live — it's the point of it. Counselling turned out to be work my body could sustain and that I find genuinely meaningful.

I completed a Master's in Counselling and have since worked in alcohol and other drug services, both in a residential facility and more recently in the community. People in that context are often carrying a great deal — not just the substance use, but everything underneath it. I've found that when people begin to understand where their difficulties actually come from, things start to shift.

My Buddhist practice shapes how I work in ways I can't easily separate out. It informs the quality of attention I try to bring to sessions, a genuine non-judgement toward suffering, and a settled conviction that change is possible. I don't work from the assumption that people are fundamentally one thing or another — people are far more complex than that. What I do believe is that everyone is doing the best they can with the resources they have, physical and mental. And that often, people simply haven't had access to the skills, understanding, or support they needed. That's what I see my role as: helping people develop what they need to get to where they want to go.