Well Action Psychotherapy

Creative psychotherapy for unique minds

Welcome.

Do you feel stuck in cycles of anxiety, guilt, anger, trauma, grief or despair? Do you want to lead a more creative life but you can't seem to get going? Do you struggle with family relationships? Do you find it hard to trust friends and intimate partners? Do you feel like there's no place for you in society? Do you feel you don't deserve the good things that come to other people? Does it all seem pointless?

For these life issues, and many besides, you have come to the right place. Psychodrama can help. You are in safe hands.

As of April 2026 I have 1 available place in my Monday evening group at The Mill in Banbury. Click here for more details.

Next availability for individual sessions - in my studio in Kings Sutton on Mondays and Tuesdays - is January 2027.

Please Message me to arrange a free initial assessment …
… or find out more about how I can help by following the links below.

• My approach to supporting you.

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  At the heart of my practice are three essential pillars: I care about you; I am curious about you; I believe in you.

  I work with people navigating emotional challenges, bringing empathy, acceptance and understanding. I know first hand how hard it can be to face change and how powerful it can be to move through it with support. My approach is informed by a thorough creative psychotherapy training, built on the foundation of an experimental psychology doctorate.

  I use simple psychodrama methods that help to unleash your own creativity, supporting you to find new ways to approach old patterns: Role Reversal helps to shift perspective and see yourself as others see you. Mirror helps you to gain perspective and develop self compassion. Doubling enables group members (if you join my group) to support each other with empathy, insight and creative thinking. Role Analysis helps you to understand why you feel how you do, and to understand your core beliefs. Role Reparation helps you to heal through taking in and absorbing the support and compassion of others. Role Training helps you to try out and rehearse new ways of changing old destructive patterns.

  I am here for the long haul and the deep dive. When brief therapy has not allowed you the time you need, and counselling has not plumbed the depths you need to explore, and you have not been able to make the changes you need to make ... that's when creative therapies like action therapy or psychodrama psychotherapy come into their own. I will be here as your ally in your self-exploration, prompting you, guiding you, gently challenging you, encouraging you and affirming you for as long as it takes.

  Email me to find out more.

• Action Psychotherapy: what it is and what it can help you with.

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  • Action Psychotherapy is another name for "Psychodrama", which is both an individual and a group psychotherapy. Applied to individuals Psychodrama is a traditional talking therapy with the option of using powerful creative techniques when words are not enough.
  • Psychodrama is solution-focussed and trauma-informed, involving heart, mind, body and soul. For an in-depth description of the process of Action Psychotherapy visit my About page and open the link for "What happens in an Action Psychotherapy session?"

  • What Action Psychotherapy can help with:

    • Mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, trauma, bipolar difficulty, dissociative identity difficulty, OCD, eating disorders, sleep disorders and personality difficulties.
    • Life challenges and difficulties including stress, relationship issues, bereavement and loss, trauma, illness, family issues, work challenges, ME/CFS, meaninglessness.
    • General benefits including enhanced wellbeing, emotional resilience, better communication skills, improved empathy, self-understanding, personal growth, greater creativity.

  Book your free online assessment session now.

• How therapy with a trainee can benefit you.

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  Trainee psychotherapists bring fresh insight, close supervision, and intensive training to their work, often paired with diverse life experience and a deep commitment to client growth.

  Close, regular supervision by senior UKCP-registered clinicians ensures ethical, skilled and safe practice. Supervisor references are available on request.

  Not only do trainees usually offer much better value than experienced psychotherapists, but by having therapy with a trainee you will be helping to create and shape the next generation of psychotherapists.

  Contact me if you're interested.

• How Action Psychotherapy stands apart.

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  Action Psychotherapy, aka Psychodrama, though lesser known in the UK, is internationally recognised and used in the NHS and prison services, valued for its depth, creativity and power to unlock stuck patterns.

  Psychodrama arose as a bold alternative to Freud’s approach, prioritising active engagement, emotional exploration and the harnessing of our innate creativity and spontaneity:

  • Psychodrama starts with your individual experience and explores how your emotions, beliefs and behaviours interact.
  • Psychodrama is focussed on how you interact with the outside world.
  • Psychodrama emphasises your creativity, alongside the spirituality inherent in the miracle of consciousness.
  • Psychodrama aims to inspire everyone to engage with, reform and improve society as well as their own experience.
  • Psychodrama is "Practice-First", using methods with a proven track record, and incorporating the insights of experimental psychology.

  Psychodrama techniques such as the "Empty Chair" and "Guided Visualisation" are so effective they have now been incorporated into most schools of psychotherapy including Gestalt, Psychosynthesis, TA, NLP, Inner Child Work, POP, Integrative, even CBT.

  Psychodrama is highly valued in the NHS as an essential component of Democratic Therapeutic Community Treatment, and is also core to the rehabilitation of serious offenders in His Majesty's Prison Service.

  Psychodrama therapy is a rare opportunity in the UK: there are just a few hundred therapists in an industry of over 70,000 registered mental health professionals.

  Visit my contact page to learn more about psychodrama.

• How I Can Help: Areas of specialism.

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  The following are my areas of particular interest and experience:

  • The mental health challenges of exceptional individuals

    I know from experience that success brings its own mental health challenges, whether that's the pressures of managing a tight budget, relationships and learning stress as a student at a top university, or juggling work-life balance as a senior manager.

    My many years as a chartered engineer have given me a good grounding in the particular demands and challenges facing executives and senior staff, especially in the tech industries. My experience has been that often the most exceptional individuals are concealing the deepest mental and emotional anguish ... but they have trouble getting people to take them seriously, and are anxious about discretion and confidentiality. If you wish to talk more about any anxieties you may have around embarking on psychotherapy treatment, please contact me to discuss your concerns.

  • Burn-out, chronic fatigue, ME/CFS, long covid

    ME/CFS can take years out of your life. Some people recover eventually, some make a partial recovery, some suffer lifelong debilitating effects.

    I disagree with the view that the illness is primarily psychological, "all in the mind", a view which comes with the damning judgement that if you don't recover you're not working hard enough at therapy. There is very little evidence for it, and compelling evidence against it.

    "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is not one thing. There are several distinct patterns of the illness and many causes.

    Psychotherapy cannot cure chronic fatigue, but it can help in the following ways:

    • Understanding how you came to suffer CFS and what you can do to reduce the risk of relapse.
    • Coming to terms with the change in life: loss of job, loss of status, loss of social life, relationship difficulties, family conflict, etc.
    • Managing the ups and downs of the illness, understanding what promotes recovery and what hinders it, and exploring what might be getting in the way of your return to health.
    • Processing past traumas so as to free up some emotional energy, enabling you to make the most of the limited physical energy that you have.

    See my blog post about ME/CFS here.

  • Eating Disorders

    Eating disorders are complicated as they can involve interactions between parental nurturing, punishment and reward, emotional neglect, thwarted aspiration, control and defiance, family dynamics, anxiety, depression and the simple need for nourishment.

    Psychodrama can help by identifying each of the different roles involved in the eating difficulty, and exploring the underlying beliefs and emotions, to discern the meaning of the illness. Once the difficulty is understood at the emotional level then self-compassion and healing become possible.

    Life-threatening eating disorders should never be treated by a psychotherapist working alone without a team.

    The most effective treatments involve a multi-disciplinary team in a residential setting that should include at least one psychiatrist, dieticians, psychotherapists, psychologists and possibly other professionals such as creative psychotherapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

  • Recurring dreams and nightmares

    Every dream tells a story; every aspect of a dream (especially people we know) represents a part of our own inner world. This may be an emotion, a relationship, a belief system, a psychological or physical need, an idea, a fear, an existential truth, a habit or a prediction. The task of dream therapy is to comprehend the significance of the story, and the characters and objects within it, for the dreamer.

    You can work with your dreams using psychodrama by taking on the roles of the characters and objects in the dream - what we call "Role Reversal" - to gain an understanding of the emotional story of the dream. Experiencing the dream from the perspective of other characters in the dream usually brings unexpected and healing insights.

    I have had a particular interest in dreams for 4 decades, running dream groups and helping individuals to understand their dreams. For 6 years I designed and taught CPD courses on dream therapy methods for counsellors and psychotherapists. I particularly use visualisation, art techniques and action methods as being the most effective approaches to dream therapy.

  • Depression

    At the heart of every depression lies an apparently insoluble problem — a profound, often painful question that resists easy answers. For example: "How can I grieve the loss of someone I loved without confronting the pain they caused me?" or "How do I find meaning in a seemingly meaningless world?" or "How can I risk loving again when everyone I love seems to leave or die?" Such emotional and philosophical dilemmas can gradually consume us, ultimately leading to a sense of hopelessness and despair.

    The treatment of depression begins, as all psychotherapy does, with acceptance: meeting the individual exactly as they are, embracing both their unique strengths and their vulnerabilities. From this foundation of acceptance, we can begin to explore the fundamental issues at the core of their suffering. This exploration can take many forms — through dreams, action methods, imagination, art, conversation, or even moments of shared silence.

    Once the underlying problem is brought into focus, we can begin the work of finding solutions. Often, this involves gently challenging deeply ingrained beliefs, such as "I mustn’t feel anger toward someone I love," "The universe and I must always be rational and logical," or "My struggles and emotions are too much for others to handle." These beliefs, often born from adversity, can be reframed to allow for healing and growth.

  • Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD)

    There is growing evidence that most treatment resistant depression actually results from misdiagnosis. Low mood on its own does not necessarily indicate depression; it may be caused by normal grieving, a recent failure, marital difficulties, inappropriately prescribed medication or just boredom, none of which should be treated as depression. Or low mood may be caused by something more intractable like childhood trauma, sleep problems or as-yet unidentified dietary intolerances.

    Action therapy can be used to explore what's really happening for you by exploring your emotional reactions in the moment using a method known as concretisation, and how these relate to the past using the approach of role analysis.

  • Anxiety

    Anxiety is a very common affliction that often accompanies other mental health difficulties. Historically different schools of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy have provided different explanations for anxiety, alongside correspondingly different treatments.

    Experimental psychology has revealed that there are multiple processes each of which can end up with anxiety. By the time anxiety becomes such a problem that help is sought, there are usually multiple anxiety-processes active at the same time. These may include direct and present threats such as a violent family member, emotional sources such as the illness of a loved one, and distressing memories from earlier life.

    The effective treatment of anxiety is a two-pronged approach: first, to develop simple coping strategies that enable somebody to start their return to normal life as soon as possible, alongside a deeper exploration of the multiple active anxiety processes, and if necessary their roots in the past. If past trauma is implicated then a parallel EMDR treatment might be recommended.

  • Mid-life crisis

    At the age of 62 I'm well past my own mid-life crisis, and have witnessed most of my friends navigate this most challenging phase of life.

    I can help you reflect on your past, engage your younger self in conversation, envision the future, encounter your older self and rehearse different scenarios. These kinds of exercises help bring clarity to this turbulent and confusing life transition.

  • Boarding school syndrome

    My interest in psychology began during my time at boarding school, as I sought to understand why some children thrived in that environment while others experienced profound trauma. The effects of boarding school trauma can be deeply distressing, not only for the individuals affected but also for their loved ones. These impacts often manifest as lifelong relationship challenges, depression, anxiety, and struggles with addiction.

  • Complex Trauma

    "Complex Trauma" is a label applied to people who have led extremely difficult lives. People who have been abandoned as children, sometimes tightly controlled, sometimes left to go feral; people whose experience is that nobody can be trusted and the world is a dangerous place; people who don't belong, don't fit in, who have never been able to find a place for themselves in an alien world.

    The work of therapy is to gradually learn that while some people can't be trusted at all, some can be trusted a bit, others a lot, and that it's possible to tell the difference between them with a little practice. The work is to discover that there's a middle way between wild abandon and stifling control. The work is to find safe places and safe people, and to practice reaching out to others with authenticity while remaining protected.

    The relationship with the therapist is the arena in which these past experiences are played out, revisited, reflected upon, and in which preconceived ideas and beliefs are gradually challenged. Trust, safety and creativity are nurtured in the therapy room and flow outwards into life like the ripples on a pond.

    This work takes time and patience, it's the work of gradually growing roots, and ultimately growing wings. It's the work of becoming fully human, fully alive, and fully one's true self.

  Schedule a free consultation.

• What other professionals say about what I can offer to you.

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  • Jon Bowen has decades of understanding of creative, therapeutic processes including dream work, Jungian and Freudian principles. He is skilled with individuals and groups alike. He has kind and firm boundaries and a genuine concern for his clients.
    Dolly (Wendy) McLaughlin: Counsellor in private practice; Counselling lead at The Cherwell School, Oxford, 2002 - 2012.
  • I would highly recommend Jon to clients as I have known him for a number of years now working alongside him as a practising Psychotherapist myself, and know him to be extremely empathic, intuitive, creative and responsive working with clients.
    Jo Augustus: Art psychotherapist in private practice; Core creative psychotherapies manager, HMP Grendon, 2002 - 2025.
  • As someone who sees Jon in clinical meetings, I am always impressed by his kindness and thoughtfulness thinking about the people we work with. I hold him in mind if I am referring on privately.
    Gordon Gunnarsen: Psychotherapist in private practice; Consultant Psychotherapist for Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust, "Personality & Complex Trauma service" (PACT).
  • Jon is one of only a few hundred psychodrama therapists in this country. He can help clients access their trauma in ways conventional talking therapies may not be able to.
    Dr. Oliver James: Chartered psychologist; Clinical psychologist in private practice; Bestselling author; Guardian columnist; TV documentary producer.

  Email me for a free no-obligation initial session.