Sarah Weir
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
INTRODUCTION:
I work as part of Kingston Counselling, which is a therapy practice based in central Kingston, within 2 minutes of the train station. We work both short term and long term, and offer daytime, evening and weekend appointments.
About Myself:
I have been a psychotherapist for over 25 years and have experience in a wide range of settings. I worked for 9 years for a community mental health team and was the manager of the counselling team. I have in-depth clinical experience of working with complex mental health issues and liaising with clinical teams. I provided training and supervision for other teams within the organisation. I have also worked for a therapeutic residential treatment centre, Employee Assistance Programmes, ran therapeutic groups for women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse and also worked in a Youth Counselling Service.
For the last 16 years I have worked as a student counsellor in a university setting. For the past 5 years I have been the Lead Counsellor at Roehampton University, and as part of this role support and supervise a team of 12 counsellors, work with complex cases and undertake assessments. I am passionate about working with young people and supporting them to fulfil their potential. I am experienced in working with the issues that young people commonly face: anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicidal feelings, self harm, eating disorders and difficulties in relationships. I also specialise in working with people with personality disorders and a background of early trauma.
In my private practice I work with a very wide range of people, with many different presenting issues. I also Coordinate the South West London Postnatal Counselling Service. This is a service for parents, to support them from pregnancy to birth and all stages of parenting. We support mothers with postnatal depression or birth trauma, as well as a wide range of family and parenting issues. Running parallel with this, I also see adolescents from age 16 onwards.
I work as a psychodynamic psychotherapist which uses an understanding of human development to identify how what has happened in your life might be contributing to the problems that you face now. I also use an understanding of unconscious processes to understand patterns and themes that keep occurring in your life and what things are out of your awareness that keep you stuck. Therapy is very much about helping you to understand how you think about yourself and what is happening in your life and working out what ways of thinking are unhelpful and are holding you back. It provides a space to really think together and allow new perspectives to emerge that can lead to change and transformation.
INITIAL CONSULTATION:
It is very important to feel that you can connect with your therapist and feel safe enough to talk openly. If you are interested in exploring whether there is potential for us to work together, then you are welcome to come for an initial consultation session to help you get a sense of whether my approach is going to be right for you.
This session is usually seventy five minutes long. It is common to feel anxious and uncertain about the initial session. Most people coming for counselling and psychotherapy feel vulnerable in some way and unsure what to expect.
An important element of the first few sessions is to taking time to understand the difficulties you are facing. Before you can resolve a problem, it is important to understand what is causing it.
Working psychodynamically, I believe that it is important to gain a thorough picture of you and your life as it has been until now. Taking time to know you thoroughly and to understand what you hope to gain from psychotherapy, provides the tools to understand your current difficulties and how they might be resolved.
If we feel together that further sessions would be helpful we can meet for on-going sessions. I can provide both short term, focussed sessions to work on a specific issue or longer term, more in-depth work, depending on your needs. The heart of psychodynamic work is the relationship that we have together as therapist and client. I aim to provide a warm, vibrant and interactive space to enable you to understand yourself in greater depth.
Training, qualifications & experience
TRAINING:
I have a Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy, a three year full time course in integrative psychotherapy, undertaken at the University of Auckland. I went on to complete a training in psychodynamic psychotherapy. I also have a qualification in supervision with the British Association of Psychotherapists. I am a Senior Accredited Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
EXPERIENCE:
I have worked as a psychotherapist for over 16 years in a wide range of settings. I was a manager of a psychotherapy service that provided community support to people with a mental illness. This role included training, supervision of staff in addition to managing referrals and assessments. I have also worked in youth centres, women's centres and residential treatment centres. I have also worked for Employee Assistance Programmes providing short term psychotherapy and also Critical Incident De-Briefing following traumatic incidents.
I worked as a Student and Staff Counsellor at St Mary's University in Twickenham for fourteen years. In my role of experienced clinician, I undertook assessments, supervised Honorary Counsellors and specialised in working with students who are particularly vulnerable or at risk. I also ran therapeutic groups for anxiety and stress. I now work as Lead Counsellor for Roehampton University, and supervise and support a team of 12 counsellors, undertake assessments and work with students presenting with complex issues.
I have had my own private practice for over sixteen years and work with a wide range of difficulties. I provide short term focused sessions, or longer term more ongoing work, depending on your individual need.
I am also the Co-Ordinator of the South West London Postnatal Counselling Service. This is a service that provides counselling to mothers and their partners from pregnancy through to birth and parenthood. We work with a wide range of issues and support all parents through the emotional challenges of having a small baby, and issues such postnatal depression, anxiety and birth trauma. We also support parents and families with children of all ages and stages with a range of difficulties.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Supervision:
I provide supervision to therapists.
Therapies offered
Fees
£70.00 per session
Additional information
Fee for individual therapy (50 minute session) £70
Fee for supervision (50 minute session) £70
When I work
I can provide daytime and evening appointments. I am also offering online sessions during the COVID-19 Situation via Zoom, Skype or phone.
Further information
During the COVID-19 Situation, I will be offering concessions to those on a low income and also key workers for a contracted period of short-term work.
