Diana Whitmore remembers Francesca Inskipp, friend and fundamental member of the Trust who passed in July 2021.
In the February issue of Therapy Today, many of you will have seen the obituary in honour of Francesca and of her passing. We at the Trust stand on the shoulders of the great ones, like Francesca, who was pivotal in the 1980s in our organisation’s development, and which continues to this day. Francesca joined the Trust as a student when she was in her 70s, demonstrating how to be a student of life-long learning and engaged in the psychospiritual work of psychosynthesis training in a wholehearted, open and inclusive way.
Francesca at the Trust
Upon completion of her training, I invited Francesca to both develop our ‘Counselling Skills’ training as well as the first Trust Supervisor training. Counselling Skills today is still delivered in a way that Francesca pioneered. She also went on to help create our first ethics committee overseeing and empowering our foundation as an ethical, values driven organisation. Most importantly, Francesca also offered invaluable support when the Trust went for its first university validation with University of East London (UEL).
To me, Francesca was a guide and a mentor – the one I could always turn to when the going got rough or when I didn’t know what to do for the best interests of the larger whole.
Her skills were massive – from good old common sense, to curriculum design, to a heartful delivery; but most of all her good will and generosity of Spirit were abundant.
Francesca’s impact
Her substantial contribution to the Psychosynthesis Trust was only a small segment to Francesca’s work – from publicly embracing new and somewhat radical thinking, to initiating distance learning programmes, to editing a Sage series on its Skills series, to creating UEL’s first initiative to train teachers and career officers and ran diploma and short courses for developing professionals. Throughout her long career, Francesca was a remarkable contributor to the development of counselling training, training supervisors and BACP.
Personally, I have never stopped feeling an abundance of gratitude to Francesca, who made such a contribution to the early years and development of the Psychosynthesis Trust and who touched those she met with positive regard, encouraging them to become their best version of themselves.
Diana Whitmore