HELEN ANDERSON: A personal tribute by Linda Edwards

On April 30th 2007 Helen Anderson died at the age of 91 in St George's Hospital Tooting. Most of you reading this will never have met her, but you will probably be aware that our Adlerian Centre in Narberth is named after her, which gives some indication of the esteem in which I held, and continue to hold my dear friend and mentor.

As I recall, it was way back in July 1989 that I encountered Helen on the telephone. The context for this call was the exasperation I was experiencing in my quest to find a counseling training that would make sense to me. I had already done a year full time in Rogerian counselling, and a year in Systemic Therapy - both of which were very useful and essential but which somehow failed to satisfy my academic need for a philosophical and ethical base for my practice and which left me with feeling under equipped to counsel the full range of human behaviours. It was a hot summer's evening that I found myself reading the London Evening Standard and there on the bottom of the page was a small boxed advert for the Adlerian Society Counselling Certificate Course giving Helen's name and 'phone number. As I picked up the telephone, little did I suspect the significance of that call.

Helen answered the 'phone in kindly but efficient tones which, in effect gave out a kind of quiet confidence, re-assurance and benevolence that set me at ease. I explained that I had toured most of London's psychological corridors to try to find a course that might suit my rather complex needs for training. I then asked her if she could explain to me in a sentence or two the essential gist of Adlerian Counselling. Without hesitation I was treated to both an eloquence and a simplicity of explanation. "It's all about the psychologyof Alfred Adler who said that as children we have an innate desire to belong, to be equal and to find our place in the world. "But", she added, "all of us also experience as children inferiority feelings and in order to overcome them, we compensate with behaviours that make us feel better. Trouble is, so often these don't wear off, we are still using childhood coping mechanisms and still believing the same things about ourselves and the world years later in our 50's and 60's".

My mind began racing back to some of my half known coping mechanisms and my own childhood inferiorities and I was desperate to know more. After another 10 minutes of discussion, Helen said, "you must come over and have coffee and we can talk some more". And that is how my relationship with this incredible woman began.

When I first arrived at Helen and Ron's apartment with its magnificent views of Wimbledon Park, the living room was resplendent with a number of bulging suitcases, which housed the Adlerian Society library. (I was later to discover that Ron, well into his 70's, would struggle weekly with two heavy cases of books to provide the library to students.) That first 'coffee' lasted the best part of three hours which passed like lightening, as Helen listened to my questions and shared with me her knowledge of Adler. By the time the metaphoric coffee was drunk, my interest was captured, and has shown no sign of abating for the last 19 years. Our friendship then passed through many different stages - Helen was to be my supervisor during my Diploma course. Also, during one of the darkest years of my life she counselled me into sanity. It is these times that I remember so vividly and for which I am so grateful. I would walk the mile from my home in Arthur Road over the Park to Osborne House, a few metres from the Wimbledon tennis courts. My mind would be haunted with various ghosts of despair, self-doubt, and isolation. I remember once arriving not knowing how I had got there. But up I would ascend in the quaint little lift and arrive to see Helen ready to welcome me with the kind of smile that understands and which requires no effort of response. I would sometimes just sit and let the kindness and warmth of her personality reach out to my troubled soul. I know everyone has a different experience of knowing her but it was my privilege to feel that matter of fact acceptance, that gentle but insightful mind of hers exploring with both sensitivity and directness the parameters of the turbulence I faced. But above all it was her humour that would move me and motivate me - so gentile, so winsome and yet with hints of benign mischief - an altogether rare brand of fun.

Since those days, much has happened. I went on to be the main trainer for the London Adlerians for 2 years. When I moved to West Wales 10 years ago, no one I met knew of Alfred Adler. My husband Phil brought Helen down to Pembrokeshire - I think it was in 1998, during our first year. I remember her now - sitting in the sun out in our back patio - drinking white wine and talking about all things interesting including her very real but unobtrusive faith in God whilst at the same time writing out envelopes to interested parties who just might want to come on a training course to learn Adlerian methods. It was then that she told me a story I have not forgotten. She was just 20 years old in 1937 and Adler was coming to the UK to take part in a massive lecture programme. She had read of his ideas and wanted to be part of the organizing group - but, as she explained there were "few of us on the ground" and "so much to do to make it all work". That being so, she turned down the opportunity to meet Dr Adler personally, so that she could help behind the scenes with the considerable workload. She knew he was coming back to London after his trip to Scotland and was hoping to meet him then. He never did. He died in Aberdeen of a massive heart attack.

And here was Helen in our back garden in her early 80's, still working, without acclaim, just doing the backbone of the work. I sent those envelopes out. Eventually with the help of Tricia Young we recruited our first course. Then our second and so on. The rest is history. We now have some 60 students per year involved in courses at Introductory, Certificate and Diploma levels in Narberth and Lampeter. And we have a Counselling Centre carved out of a derelict ruin of a Victorian Townhouse named ANDERSON HOUSE as a tribute to both Helen and Ron. The Adlerian Society of Wales has 70+ members all paying membership fees and supporting the Centre. The whole enterprise operates on an enormous amount of generous sponsorship, hard work, volunteer help and good will. But the intellectual and psychological ancestry of the enterprise traces its lineage back to Helen.

I hope this gives some tribute to a quite remarkable person, whose friendship I was privileged to share during the last 20 years of her life.