Jem Stopes

Hi, I'm Jem! My first career was in languages – Russian, French, and Czech. In search of greater meaning, I left that behind in 2013 and hitchhiked some 25,000 miles across Europe, Africa and Asia on my own. I came to a halt in 2016 in Bristol and trained in Mediation and then in Non-Violent Communication and began to practice as a volunteer mediator for Resolve West working on a range of cases within the community. In 2017 I trained in the Restorative Circles Approach with Belinda Hopkins and started to apply it within activist groups including XR. From 2019 onwards I have held my own private practice offering conflict resolution within inter-personal and professional contexts. I wanted a way to go deeper with people, and to engage with some of the root causes of the conflicts I was meeting as a mediator. To this end I trained in 2020 as a coach with MOE Foundation and studied a foundation at BCPC (Bath Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy). I then went on to study a diploma in Clinical Sexology (sex and relationship therapy) at the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology. I bring a strong empathic presence to all of the work that I do. This is supported by my own journey with meditation and personal therapy. I had chronic back pain for ten years which I eventually resolved through somatic meditation. The process of bringing my own inner workings to my conscious awareness has been hugely formative for me. I've spent a lot of time in Berlin over the years, including some periods living here. In 2025 I took the plunge and made the city my full-time home.