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About Me
Qualifications and Experience
- I trained with the Central School of Counselling and Psychotherapy over 3 years and gained a Certificate in Counselling Skills, Certificate in Counselling Theory, Combined Certificate in Counselling and attained my Diploma in Counselling in 1997.
- Since gaining my Diploma I have built-up my private practice engaging in both long-term as well as more focussed short-term work around particular issues.
- I continue to enhance and broaden my therapeutic work by attending further training courses and by both reading and offering my input to professional journals and by researching relevant texts. I believe that the personal development I gain from these activities is integral to my continuing professional development as is my regular practioner supervision in accordance with BACP guidelines.
- I trained in bereavement counselling with Cruse in Swindon and was a volunteer counsellor there for 5 years.
- I trained as a life coach with Newcastle College and qualified in 2005. I obtained my diploma level in December 2006. Aspects of life coaching have been effective with certain clients and I am currently also developing life coaching as a separate service.
- In addition to my private practice I work for a large employee assistance provider which gives me an opportunity to carry out focused and time-limited work with corporate clients on a range of issues both work-related and personal. This includes stress related to organisational change, redundancy, and bullying; interpersonal relationship difficulties; and issues related to areas outside of the working environment.
- Until 2005, I also worked within a large national organisation in various roles including front line operational work, developmental training, investigation of employee’s complaints of bullying and harassment and latterly, as HR co-ordinator of regional internal discipline and grievance cases. The insight provided by this working environment has been invaluable in my counselling practice.
My Approach
At some point in our life many of us experience difficulties which may make us feel unhappy and anxious about current problems, about our personal life history or other issues. Sometimes we don’t even know why we feel so bad. We may feel isolated, lonely, sad, hurt, angry and possibly not sure why we seem to be locked in to the same patterns of behaviour. It can be hard to find someone you can trust enough to talk to about what is happening, to make some sense of it with you, to work towards coming to terms with these aspects of your life and perhaps making those changes.
I believe that every one of us has the personal resources to deal with problem areas and that my job as a trained counsellor is to provide a safe, supportive and non-judgmental environment in which to help my clients access the resources they need to do so. I will work with you to find a way forward towards any changes which you choose.
My training has covered a range of theoretical orientations and I draw from these to provide integrated therapy tailored to individual client need:
- The Person Centred approach originated by Carl Rogers, which has been further developed, is very effective in empowering non directive change. In this approach the relationship between the counsellor and client is one in which the counsellor is completely genuine (congruent), non judgemental (giving the client unconditional positive regard) and is deeply empathic.
- Cognitive Therapy can be an effective tool for a variety of difficulties and can provide a range of strategies for ameliorating certain problems, anxieties and phobias as well as changing underlying beliefs.
- Brief Therapy is goal directed and can be useful for individuals dealing with problems which do not necessarily have their roots in the past.
- Grief Counselling can be extremely helpful in working through the tasks of mourning and the trauma of special kinds of losses.
- Couple Counselling can assist understanding of concerns, and stimulate change by motivating behaviour management.
As a private counsellor I offer a personal service where my clients can be assured that they will only see and be contacted by me. I am an Individual Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and I am bound by its Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy (click here for more information).
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