About Me

I’m an Australian-born therapist, facilitator, and organisational consultant, working in English and French, and currently just outside Paris, France. My path has taken me through many places, communities, and roles — each shaping the way I now accompany people through emotional, psychological, and existential challenges.

Portrait of Ben Donaldson - IFS Therapist and Organisational Consultant

Living Between Worlds

For most of my adult life, I've lived nomadically across the world, now for the last several years in France.

Moving between cultures has taught me how complex, beautiful, and disorienting life abroad can be — how loneliness, uncertainty, and inner conflict often sit right alongside curiosity, growth, and possibility.

This experience cultivated a deep respect for human diversity and the different ways people make sense of their inner worlds. It also gave me a lived understanding of the emotional landscape many expats, travellers, and cross-cultural individuals navigate daily.

Work Rooted in Human Development

Before becoming a therapist, my professional life spanned teaching, coaching, facilitation, and leadership. I’ve supported people through academic challenges, organisational transitions, interpersonal difficulties, and high-pressure work environments. I’ve managed teams, designed professional development pathways, and helped groups navigate conflict and complexity.

Across all these roles, a single thread kept appearing: a strong conviction in people’s capacity to change, heal, and grow when given clarity, support, and space to be fully human.

Community, Responsibility, and Complexity

I’ve invested heavily in cultural and grassroots organisations, including leadership roles at Burning Man–affiliated events and Rainbow Gathering community laboratories. My work there involved:

designing and implementing processes for conflict resolution
supporting volunteers and leaders through stress, burnout, and interpersonal challenges
facilitating multi-hour mediations
providing psychological and emotional support in dynamic situations
contributing to safety, welfare, and crisis response teams

More recently, I helped initiate a cultural audit at a major French festival, working to improve representation and cultural sensitivity. These environments demanded steadiness, empathy, and the ability to hold complexity — skills that inform the way I practice therapy today.

Inner Work

This outer journey has been accompanied by an (ongoing!) journey of inner work. This includes thousands of hours spent in silent meditation retreats, including volunteering as a student manager. I've also participated in many indigenous-led rituals, including South American plant-medicine ceremonies—inspiring, in part, my interest in the psychotherapeutic benefit of altered states. In addition, I am engaged with several spiritual traditions, notably Theraveda Buddhism, Sufism, and European folk mysticism.

Other influences include Authentic Relating and Men's Work, workshops of which I've also facilitated. Sex-positive and committed to allyship, I stand with those facing discrimination, marginalisation or systemic disadvantage.

My Approach

I aim to create a therapeutic environment that is:

steady and grounded
emotionally precise
non-judgemental and non-pathologising
culturally aware and sensitive to the complexities of expat and cross-cultural life
open to both psychological depth and psychospiritual exploration
collaborative, paced, and attuned to the needs of each part of you

I work with individuals who are navigating anxiety, burnout, loneliness, identity conflict, sadness, shame, trauma, or simply the wish to feel more coherent and connected in themselves.

An Invitation

If you feel drawn to this work — whether you’re facing a difficult emotional period, feeling disconnected from yourself, or simply curious about what might open through deeper self-inquiry — I would be honoured to accompany you.

Free Intro Call (20 min) Trial Consult (60 min) All Prices