My mother, Helen Davis, was an outstanding psychotherapist and educator who significantly advanced the modern psychotherapy profession in Britain. She passed away at the age of 80.
Helen Aronsohn, born in Johannesburg to lawyer Sonny Aronsohn and his wife Elsie (née Plotkin), quit school at age 17 without receiving a diploma and traveled to the UK to enroll in the Rambert Ballet School. Her dreams of dancing were cut short by a foot issue.
After a 1964 marriage to Neville Davis, two children, and separation (she subsequently divorced him in 1976), she started looking for a new career.
She enrolled in courses for the 1970s’ developing field of psychotherapy. Helen also attended workshops in the US. Most trainings was conducted at Quaesitor, a humanist therapy center in north London.
She soon established her private practice and immersed herself in the industry. She founded the Minster Centre in 1978 at our family home in Cricklewood, north London, along with Hymie Wyse and John Gravelle.
The center sought to integrate the humanistic and psychoanalytic schools of psychotherapy by being the first in the UK to offer integrative training programs.
The center prospered and grew, eventually relocating to bigger quarters in west London. Helen kept coming up with new ideas and incorporated them into the training.
In 1988, she played a crucial role in establishing the UK Standing Conference for Psychotherapy, Helen Davis Obituary. which today is known as the UK Council for Psychotherapy.
She gained a lot of recognition and was frequently asked to teach, provide advice, and create new programs domestically in the UK and overseas in Germany, Japan, Iceland, the US, and other countries.
She was also a fearless activist with steadfast political beliefs in social justice and equality. As a teenager, she was actively involved in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and faced threats from the police.
Under her leadership, the Minster Centre vigorously promoted the rights of minorities and launched several humanitarian initiatives that assisted refugees, convicts, and victims of domestic violence.
Helen was always giving up her time and resources. She spent a lot of overtime to support the center, its employees, and its students, regularly providing to charitable organizations and disadvantaged acquaintances.
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She never gave up on the individuals she believed in, even when they had. Often, the center (and our home) served as a temporary residence for needy individuals, or Helen would impromptu cook a delicious meal for the worn-out employees.
In addition, Helen was a talented designer, gardener, and arts enthusiast. She had lots of creative friends who were both musicians and authors.
Thousands of books and CDs lined the walls of her rooms, like little treasure chests filled with artwork and other items she had acquired on her trips.
She experienced early-onset dementia and was forced to retire in 2002 after a long period of ill health.
Her children Keaton and I, her grandchildren Hannah, Miriam, Kezia, Fin, and her sisters Joan and Judy are the ones she leaves behind.
Had She Died Before The Deaths Of Her Parents, John And Grace Rector?
Her parents, John and Grace Rector, her brother Tom Rector, and her husband, Sterling E. Davis, passed away before she did.
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