Andrea Grahame
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
If you are struggling in life you can feel alone and not good about yourself. Things can feel hopeless and never changing, patterns can seem to repeat over and over again, with no end in sight. I provide a caring, supportive and non judgmental space and together we can make sense of what you are going through. When you feel heard and understood you begin to feel valued and a renewed sense of who you are. This will bring confidence and self assurance and you can find that you feel clearer about how your experiences have affected you and begin to have choices about the way forwards to feel better.
Our work together will look at how you understand your life and relationships, which can lead to deeper understanding, self acceptance, and a valuing of who you are. I believe that our past experiences have an impact on how we live now and that sometimes understanding this can lead to changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and how we feel about ourselves and others, and lead to positive changes. Healing happens in therapy through our regular meetings and is life changing.
I work with adults (18 yrs +) both in short-term and long-term therapy. My approach is integrative, drawing from psycho-dynamic, person-centred, and trauma focused therapies using sensorimotor and polyvagal theories. Through our work together I will draw on what is most helpful to you.
Training, qualifications & experience
BA Psychology, University of California Los Angeles 1984
Certificate in Counselling, University of Hertfordshire 2002
PG Diploma in Counselling, University of Hertfordshire 2004
Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills 2007Certificate in Somatic Trauma Therapy (2012-2013)
BACP Accredited 2010
PG Diploma in Supervision, The Minster Centre 2024
Other Training includes: Depression, Self-Harm, Sexual Abuse, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Aspergers, ADHD, Cultural Difference and Diversity,
Short-Term Focused Therapy, Adolescent Mental Health, Working with Suicidal Clients, Self Esteem and Trauma.
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
- On-line Counselling
- Telephone Counselling
- Coronavirus Anxiety
Fees
£60.00 per session
Additional information
Sessions are £60
Our first meeting will give us an opportunity to meet and talk about how you are feeling at the moment and your situation. We can discuss if you would like to continue with more sessions and consider short-term or long-term counselling. Counselling is a personal experience and the relationship between each client and each counsellor is unique to them only.
As it is very hard to know what a counsellor is like, I am very happy for you to contact me with any questions you may have.
When I work
I am available for on-line and telephone counselling.
Further information
Sometimes clients come to counselling with a specific issue they want to address. By focusing on this they can gain a better understanding of what is going on and develop ways of approaching the problem that can be helpful in making a change.
Other clients can come to counselling after battling difficulties for years, having tried various ways of addressing problems but finding themselves still struggling. Perhaps the difficulties have gone away temporarily but then came back or re-emerged in some other form or another part of their lives. Other times, clients come without a clear idea of what is wrong, but have struggled with feelings of depression and anxiety or other feelings which have made life difficult and won't go away.
In a counselling relationship, it is possible to reach areas of ourselves that are not consciously known to us, or in our awareness, and therefore, are hard to reach on our own. Through the relationship with a counsellor these areas can emerge, at the pace of the client, and be sensitively observed and known about. And through this process change can become possible.
A valuable experience that can come out of counselling is when change just 'happens' without the client having to think about it.
