The Last of Emma Ocean
The Last of Emma Ocean
and the first of something new!
If you’re eagle eyed, you might notice an author change - I’m still me, I promise. To explain, I need to tell you a story.
In 2017, I first opened my private practice - then called Thrive Therapy & Consultation - focusing on Trauma, Anxiety and Depression (which, very ironically, is a v. broad specialization). I fell in love with supporting clients in their journey towards themselves. But with such a clinical focus, my spiritual lens was gathering dust.
While my Capricorn sun was satisfied with having a typical therapeutic services, my Pisces moon was left wanting.
In 2020, I rebranded my private practice to become Syconium Healing Practice - focusing instead of ShadoWork as a therapeutic coach and guide. I began integrating more spiritual practices into my sessions - tarot readings, dream interpretations, natal chart analyses, meditations, rituals. Offering psychospiritual counselling that held space for the practical (setting boundaries) with the ethereal (connecting to past lives) felt authentic.
I have a 10 minute spiel about why I named my practice Syconium but having to explain the name of my practice doesn’t exactly create accessible community. Syconium is hard to spell and no one - literally no one - knows what it is.
But while my Pisces moon contented with this spiritual integration, my Capricorn sun was cast aside.
I didn’t want to be pigeon holed as a hyper-spiritual coach bypassing their way through clients’ lives. I wanted to be taken seriously as a registered psychotherapist with the education and experience to support my practice - but I also craved the spiritual offerings and potential for inner integration. I saw clients who were stuck for years find authentic contentment in one meditative release - mind you, after 3 years of intense psychotherapy. It was the blend of both that created change - I could see that.
I no longer wanted to cut off part of myself.
Part of the shift from Thrive Therapy & Consultation to Syconium Healing Practice was employing a pseudonym - Emma Ocean. Emma is my middle name so it is still my name (one I love) and my surname translates to “by the sea” so it is a homage to my lineage in a more roundabout way. I longed for anonymity, especially post-divorce and after leaving the church. I didn’t want people to be able to find me because I didn’t want to be found. Emma Ocean became my refuge.
Emma Ocean allowed me to share more openly about my work - on myself and in my practice, without the censorship that would come from anticipating the judgement of family (mine or my exes) or past church communities. But Emma has been a cloak - hiding the fullness of who I am beneath a pseudonym that is only partially me.
Shifting from Emma, my middle name, back to Bethany, is a full-circle experience. It is a reminder I cannot outrun who I am.
My practice is so important to me - it IS me. Through this process of rebranding, I’ve been creating space for different parts Selves, unique aspects to who I am. But creating space for one always meant neglecting the other.
Since moving to the UK, I have found more pieces to myself. More than I had ever known before. I discovered the freedom of anonymity and the joys of introducing myself how I want to be known, instead of wading through other peoples’ perceptions of me. Implicitly, I’ve found the Middle Path as the pendulum swung from one end to the other and now - it has settled in the middle.
My Capricorn sun and Pisces moon have found the balance they both need to work together and draw on each others’ gifts, strengths and limits.
Thrive Integrated Psychology brings together my favourite services, offerings, gifts and strengths. I’m excited to move through the world as Bethany - much like the Star tarot card who stands in herself vulnerable and strong after the fall of the Tower (all of the structures we’ve built around us have crumbled).
I’m so excited to introduce you to Thrive as a practice and to me, Bethany, as a person. For now, take a peek through the new & improved landscapes I tread:
You can find all the things at www.thriveintegratedpsychology.com and here https://linktr.ee/thrivewithbethany
At some point, I'll be venturing back onto:
Thank you for sticking with me through the tides of change!