Jeane Freer's Life Story

Jeane Freer - Spiritual Counsellor

Jeane Freer's Life Story

I was born in Los Angeles, California and in keeping with the ethos of the time, I was put into psychotherapy as a child and again as an adolescent. I went to Berkeley in the Sixties where I took LSD and engaged in anti-war political protest. After completing my undergraduate degree, I moved to the UK where one could vote as a socialist without having one’s phone tapped. While in London I concluded my ‘official’ therapy with a full-term Freudian psychoanalysis – five days a week on the couch for four years – with a well-known Freudian analyst in St John’s Wood. I became a British citizen when I married, and the American authorities rescinded my American passport, denying me American nationality for 18 years.

Soon after, I became a feminist, and in searching for equal rights for wymn, explored the realms of religion and spirituality, becoming a Wiccan priestess in the Dianic tradition. In that capacity, and with the encouragement of feminist artist Zee Budapest (US) and matriarchal scholar Asphodel Long (UK), I began to lead many public rituals, train others and provide pastoral counselling. Always a pacifist, I was drawn to Buddhist teachings and took up a vipassana meditation practice when I moved to Somerset in the mid-1970’s. While meditating and doing yoga in Glastonbury, I also began to study the occult sciences, taking courses at the College of Psychic Studies and elsewhere, and in 1979 started reading Tarot cards in the back of a shop in Glastonbury High Street. My clients returned every summer, saying the readings had been very helpful, so I increasingly trusted my intuitive abilities. On the strength of this experience, I wrote “The New Feminist Tarot” which was published by Thorson’s Aquarian Press.

Originally trained as a teacher, I have several teaching certificates including one from the Maria Montessori Training Organisation in London. However, I soon began looking for a career change and trained in Remedial Massage with the Northern Institute of Massage and in Nutritional Counselling with Professor C. Curtis Shears at the College of Naturopathy in London. I began by giving nutritional advice using radiaesthesia on a range of specific foods. However, when I visited a friend whose daughter I had diagnosed in this way, and saw how awkward it was to cook for a family when one member has such detailed diet instructions, I became unsure of this approach and chose instead to keep my food recommendations more general. Even so, I found myself arguing with clients about the scientific results of nutritional studies. It became evident that one can find a scientific study to prove whatever position one holds. And making a career as a masseuse, I soon realised, was very demanding on the thumb joints. At about the same time I was introduced to the Bach Flower Remedies, and like Dr. Bach, became increasingly interested in finding more energetically subtle solutions to physical and emotional challenges.

I began working with the Bach Flower Remedies at the end of the 1970’s and feel that learning to select the best remedies for clients has taught me an enormous amount about human psychology and “psycho-pathology” and has helped to make me a much better listener and a more sensitive counsellor. I was introduced to the Metamorphic Technique also in the late 70’s, which taught me to apply the practice of detachment that I was learning in meditation to my relationships with my clients, to the benefit of all concerned. Spiritual Healing, which officially entered by medicine bag in the early 1980’s also requires detachment, so that one channels the universal healing power rather than using personal energy to heal, which is a safeguard for all participants.

As the New Age geared up, I encountered Affirmations which made a natural link to Visualisations, a common tool in both occult studies and advanced meditation practices. Crystals began to be more widely available, and books on their healing and occult properties found their way into my library. About this time people began to speak more openly about the availability of the healing energies of Angels and I gradually came to understand this for myself. Colour therapy and Aromatherapy were also subjects I studied during this transition. And on a more material level, I was very involved with organic gardening and a range of nutrition approaches including macrobiotics, veganism, food combining and others in this period. I also had regular Alexander lessons for several years. Jana Runnalls, then of the music duo OVA, taught me how to drum which - together with the spoon-playing Country Joe (of Country Joe and the Fish) had taught me years before - made me an accomplished musician around the many campfires I frequented in those years.

While living in Somerset I founded the Feminist Archive, and with the help of a number of women including most importantly the writer Fay Weldon, established branches of the FA in Bristol and Leeds. I was also instrumental in organising W.I.S.E. , the Wymn’s International Summer Event - Britain’s only outdoor women’s music festival - which took place on the site of the world-famous Glastonbury Festival. Then in 1981 I went to Greenham Common Wymn’s Peace Camp, where I stayed for two years. There I had the opportunity to integrate all of my knowledge, skills and talents into living a fully potentised life. Whether taking political action outside or inside the military base, attending court or being in prison, everything I understood about self-actualisation was called into play. It was a most rewarding period of my life. While at Greenham, a new clinic opened in Bath, and I began seeing clients there one day a week. After Greenham, and a brief stay in Oxford, I moved to the Peak Park in Derbyshire where I again began to see clients, both at my cottage in Wensley and at a clinic in Sheffield. I also led short residential meditation retreats, began teaching a variety of workshops, and introduced a cassette series of guided visualisations.

When the Berlin Wall came down I felt I needed a crash course in intensive capitalism, and besides I had decided I wanted to be a radio producer, so when my divorce was final I returned to Los Angeles, where I accomplished both those goals, as well as retrieving my American nationality and earning my MA degree. While I was in the US, throughout the 90’s, I again saw clients and learned about the wide selection of 12-Step programmes available, and how tremendously helpful they can be for people. I also had the honour of living as Priestess-in-Residence at the Topanga Canyon ranch of Marija Gimbutas, a noted archaeologist, for the last two years of her life.

In 2001 I moved to Paris, and the city was extremely welcoming. I found wonderful people to work with, to continue my exploration of the rich tapestry of life, studying astrology, and doing sacred dance and voice work as well as meditation and yoga. I participated in a variety of other workshops in various centres around Paris and in other parts of France, and earned my NLP qualification as well as learning “La Trame”, a body-work technique developed by a French alchemist. I also became a French citizen. So my life in France was extremely rewarding and taught me many things.

After nearly eight years in Paris I found myself hungering to live near the ocean again, and after much reflection and journeys to various parts of the world, I decided to return to Brighton - on the south coast of England - which is where I am currently living.

My work with clients is immensely satisfying, and it is a privilege to work with each and every one of them. Now seems to me to be a very important time in the hystory of the world, and the work that each of us is doing to become more aware is part of the paradigm shift. Thank you for visiting my website and taking the time read my life story. I hope we may have the opportunity to meet and to work together.