Jane has had a lifelong passion for transforming educational structures and processes to release the creative potential of children and young people.
Originally a secondary school teacher, she has worked in all sectors of education including early years and universities and served as a school governor for more than twenty years.
She has worked in the UK and around the world with teachers and leaders and has written a book ‘Families: revealing the hidden dynamics of parenting’ to help parents support their children using innovative, creative and systemic approaches.
Jane is a creative-catalyst in nowhere committed to bringing their transformative practice to a wider audience. As a Business Partner and Associate at Bristol Business School, Jane works in leadership development specialising in working with leaders from the health and social care sectors.
She is a qualified leadership and executive coach, and trains and supervises other coaches as well as contributing to research and writing, most recently on governorship and adult ego development
Families: revealing
the hidden dynamics
of parenting’
Families: revealing the hidden dynamics of parenting is a book written from the heart. Jane James uses her experience of systemic approaches with parents and children as well as within her own family to support new ways of understanding the dynamics of being a child, being a parent – being in the generational line. Simple but powerful activities for parents – some to undertake on their own, some to do with children – are central in this beautifully illustrated book.
Jane writes about her mother, father and four children in an open and touching way. The book makes clear how she has come to an understanding of the four ways of knowing and the four ordering principles of human systems. These principles shape the structure of the text – and in each chapter there are simply laid out and illustrated activities for parents and families to try.
For people who already know about constellations – this book will carry familiar echoes of this family systems method that can bring new perspectives and insight to family issues and dynamics. But for all parents this book carries simple but powerful messages about love, about what we carry from our family heritage and how we can work creatively with all of it to support healthy, vibrant and loving children.
Jane has worked as a teacher, child minder, foster parent, and as a director of a day nursery company. She has spent ten years developing systemic approaches in schools helping teachers, leaders and parents in the UK and in many countries around the world understand the significance of belonging, exchange, time and place. She has four children and six grandchildren.