Qualifications, Experience, and Me!
Diploma in Counselling
Post Graduate Certificate in Couple Counselling
Certificate in Counselling Supervision
Accredited Member of British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
Areas of specialism and experience:
Understanding relationships for individuals and couples
Working with couples to explore and repair relationships, as well as letting go
Anxiety and depression
Addictive or compulsive behaviour
Loneliness, despair and suicide
Abuse; sexual, physical, or domestic
Life threatening/terminal illness
Loss and change; people, work, relationships, bereavement,redundancy
Stress in life and work;
Panic attacks and Anxiety;
Trauma;
About me
I came to counselling late in life following many years in local government. A period in my own life brought about my own loss and change, but opened a door to a new direction that has brought a huge reward from working with amazing people who give themselves in their sessions.
I am a mature male, with a lifetime’s experience of working with and relating to others. My counselling skills are built on 50 plus years of life experience, being husband and father, working with people, and having respect for others. I am an integrative person, and combine my life experience, knowledge, and reflection, to develop a rounded view of life and human experience.
My personal approach
I am an integrative counsellor and at my core is respect for you and what you are dealing with. It is an important part of my counselling work, it is me in the room, establishing a relationship with you. I am an optimist, and believe strongly that a small change is always possible, and the smallest change can lead to bigger ones.
I work in an integrated model, developing a therapeutic relationship to understand your perspective of who you are and how your life is. I blend psychodynamic themes to understand your past, as often we are today, the result of what happened in the past. I use systemics to explore the relationships in your life, the ones you have now, the ones you grew up in. I use cognitive and cbt models to understand your thoughts, how you process them, and how they allow you to be different and sustain change in the future. I use humanistic and experiential strands to explore how life has shaped your existence and your understanding of it
I work with your words, your body language and the faces you pull. I listen for the times you make allowances for others but not for yourself. I work with the emotions in the room, and while they can be painful, be raw, be aggressive, they are always human. They are the things we have in common.