Jenny Secretan

Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE3 		Jenny Secretan
07957335084
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Profile

I am a BACP senior accredited counsellor with 20 years' professional counselling experience offering one-to-one short-term and long-term counselling/psychotherapy to adults of all ages from age 16 upwards and including the elderly.

All my work is founded upon a deeply held belief in the person-centred approach so this is at the heart of my counselling practice and is also a way of life. I am interested, however, in where issues and problems originate from and this is frequently in our childhood messages and experiences. These then are often just as significant as what is going on in the here-and-now.

For me, counselling is about personal empowerment and about helping you take control of your life and manage it better so that your hopes and dreams can confidently re-emerge and have chance of becoming reality.

If appropriate, I like to work creatively. Thus, in addition to active and respectful listening, which is always the essence of the work, I may with your permission occasionally offer drawing, writing, chair-work or other playful methods of harnessing the power of metaphor and of your imagination, to access your feelings more quickly and effectively than simply through talk.

As a member of the Directory of Pink Therapists, I welcome Lesbian, Gay and Bi-sexual clients and I also welcome issues around spirituality (in its widest sense).

An enjoyable and important part of my work is offering counselling, supervision and training to other counsellors and counselling trainees. I run a well-established supervision practice (goes back to 2000) which is of equal standing with my counselling practice.

Training, Qualifications & Experience

English Language and Literature B.A. Hons. (Durham) 1973-76

PostGrad Cert Education - Exeter University 1977

Diploma in Theology - Nottingham University 1982

Counselling Certificate, Advanced Certificate, Advanced Diploma and M.A. Durham University 1993-97

Cruse Supervision Certificate - 1999

Post Grad Certificate in Supervision - Newcastle University 2003

Certificate in Psychodrama Skills - Northern School of Psychodrama 2006

Essentials of Sexual Minority Therapy - Pink Therapy (Dominic Davies) 2007

Certificate in Creativity and Imagination - IATE, Islington. 2009

In detail:

Setting out with an English degree in the 1970s, I did a PGCE and taught for four years in an 11-18 comprehensive school in Teesside where I gained additional experience working pastorally with sixth-formers.

I was at theological college in the early 1980s and worked first in the chaplaincy at what was then Newcastle Poly, mostly with young people and with older women making a return to education.

I then moved to Birmingham where I worked in a very disadvantaged multi-racial part of the city, creating and organising community activities - youth clubs, playschemes, lunch club, credit union etc - for both young and old and doing a lot of work specifically with women around self-esteem.

I built up considerable skills during this period in working with bereavement and loss of all kinds and with domestic violence.

After that, I worked in South Tyneside and continued some teaching and outreach to children in primary and secondary schools with special emotional and behavioural needs and at a centre called Chuter Ede.

I started work as a professional counsellor at REACH in Sunderland in 1991 with women who had been sexually assaulted/raped and then began work in Primary Care in 1995. Meanwhile, I trained at Durham University for the Advanced Diploma and M.A. in Counselling which I completed in 1997.

I worked in Primary Care in Newcastle for 14 years as an experienced counsellor and counselling supervisor and, in addition to my client work, have mentored and counselled many health care professionals, including GPs and GP registrars through Primary Care Choices and more recently the Northumberland Vocational Training Scheme

I have been working in private practice, now as a senior accredited counsellor and qualified counselling supervisor, since 2000.

As well as the M.A. in Counselling from Durham, I have a Counselling Supervision Certificate from Newcastle University (2003), a Certificate in Psychodrama Skills (2006) and Essentials in Sexual Minority Counselling from Pink Therapy in London (2007). I have recently completed a Certificate in Creativity and Imagination at IATE validated by London Metropolitan University (July 2009).

I continue to learn from you, my supervisees and my clients, and to try to explore and understand your world with you as best as I can, to support and to challenge as appropriate.

Areas of counselling I deal with

Other areas of counselling I deal with

Personal Growth
Self-development
Women's issues
Parenting issues
Creativity and Play
Health issues

Therapies Offered

Fees

£45 - £50 an hour for individual counselling. £55 for couples.

£45 - £50 an hour for supervision or £70 for 1.5 hours a month (as required by BACP).

Available on request for supervisees: Half hour no obligation introductory session to explore possibility of working together before deciding whether you might like to go ahead or not.

Student reductions available for supervision and for students seeking long-term counselling whilst training.

Further Information

Parking is convenient and free on the street outside where I work from in NE3.

Unfortunately I have no disabled access at present.

Member Organisation(s)

Registered / Accredited Counsellor or Psychotherapist