Christian McCabe

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MBACP
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

Bristol, Somerset, BS9
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

Hello.
Are such experiences as depression, feeling so utterly lost and hopeless, what brings you here now, reading these words? Is it the feeling of anxiousness that’s always there, as if uninvited, that feels so overwhelming, almost paralysing? You may be experiencing an almost suffocating sense of panic, as yet another day demands your attention or a relationship that’s lost its meaning, whether with another or with yourself, leaving you feeling isolated, lost and alone.
How do you find help? How do you change such seemingly never ending, negative felt experiences?
I too can relate to such questions. Inside myself, knowing I need to ask for help and that no one else can ask it for me. Finding the courage to take this first step feels so daunting. You may be saying to yourself right now:

“Who can I trust?”
“Who would hear and understand me?”
“Who would not judge or criticise me?”
“Who can I talk to, that would be accepting of me as me?”


I too have churned such questions over and over in my own head, many times. Finding that courage has felt so hard to somehow grab hold of. Yet once I’d taken my first step, as you may be doing right now, the courage to take the next step felt a little easier and the change I’d so longed for, that bit closer.

About counselling, me and how I work.


I am a BACP registered Integrative Humanistic counsellor and group facilitator, qualified to post graduate diploma level and have been practising full time for the last ten years. ‘Integrative’ meaning the bringing together of the Psychodynamic, Person-Centred (humanistic) and Cognitive Behavioural principals of psychotherapy to help work towards you becoming a more fully functioning and whole person.
As a counsellor, who identifies as a gay male, I offer to stand alongside you, irrespective of your cultural background or whether you experience yourself right now as binary or non-binary or that you’re here reading this because you’re questioning your sense of identity, I’m offering you a safe and non-judgemental space in which either yourself as an individual or in a partnership, can explore the many felt experiences attached to:

  • Your relationship with self and what that feels like right now.
  • The fear of facing yourself, your identity - “Who am I and where do I belong?”. A curiosity too, that feels suffocated by a deep sense of shame.
  • Being in relationship, whether that’s with yourself, another or the world around you.
  • The painful feelings of shame, rejection, the sadness around loss (what was or may have been) and the need to have control.
  • A continual feeling of anxiousness.
  • The many forms of the addictive personality – abusive relationships and co-dependency, drugs and alcohol, sex and pornography, exercise and work.
  • Or the awareness that your emotions or feelings, which may have been long locked away, have now reached a point where you may feel as if being ‘eaten from the inside’ and it is now time to express, hear and feel these, find sense and resolve and set yourself free.

In a nutshell, these and other life crippling experiences that often leave you feeling you’ve no way out, have been my experience of what brings people into therapy.

Making contact and what to expect.


Sometimes, making sense and finding clarity and resolve can be simpler than perhaps imagined and change can be felt over a shorter period of time. On other occasions, many deeply rooted experiences and subsequent issues may take longer to work through. I am therefore happy to work in both the short term (minimum of 12 sessions) or longer term which can facilitate deeper, more reflective changes.
Such decisions and aims are explored and agreed upon together in our initial assessment process. I feel it is important to say at this point, as this will be our first meeting of each other, the assessment process not only helps me get a sense of you but you, getting a sense of me too - like a two-way street so to speak. What is fundamental to the success of any counselling experience, is the therapeutic relationship that develops between us.


I welcome your enquiry, either by email or mobile and will happily talk through what you feel your needs are, offering you an appointment to meet either face to face at my rooms in Bristol, online via Zoom or telephone, where together we’ll work out a plan of action. This is the assessment process which I mentioned earlier of which I do not charge.
On reflection of your assessment experience, should you feel we could work together, we would discuss a suitable time to meet each week, either during the day or early evenings and begin our work together.

***PLEASE NOTE: I WILL BE AWAY ON ANNUAL LEAVE FROM THE 1ST OF JUNE TO THE 3RD OF JULY 2023.***

Should you wish to make an enquiry, I will make sure I get back to you as soon as I'm back at my practice.

Training, qualifications & experience

  • Trained Integratively to post graduate diploma level.
  • Registered MBACP.
  • Been in practice for 10 years.
  • Have worked extensively with alcoholism and drug addiction.
  • Group therapy/facilitation.
  • Work at Relational Depth.
  • Transactional Analysis.
  • Anger/Depression/Shame
  • Anxiety/Stress.
  • Loss and bereavement.
  • Codependency/relationship issues/attachment.
  • Clay work, drawing, painting, poetry and prose.

Member organisations

BACP
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP)

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

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
Accredited Register Scheme

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.

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

Photos & videos

Fees

£45.00 per session
Free initial in-person, telephone or online session

Concessions offered for

  • Trainee counsellors

Additional information

I do not charge for the initial session as I view this as an assessment of our potential working relationship.

As from the 1st of January 2019, there will be an increase in my fees, which are now:

  • £45 per 50 minute session for an individual.
  • £60 per 60 minute session for a couple.
  • Student concessions available.

When I work

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Night

Days and evenings.

Further information

Client feedback.

"A year ago I shocked myself at how angry and unpleasant I had become, and how everything was always someone else's fault. My relationship with my partner was under strain and I was not behaving in a way that was acceptable to me, or him. I did not know why I was being the way I was being, but I couldn't seem to get myself out of it. This was when I decided to try counselling, choosing Christian as I related to the things he had written on his profile. I have had ten months of weekly counselling, and am a different person. Working with Christian allowed me to foster a trusting and honest relationship with him, where I was finally able to face up to some long standing demons. Christian was a warm, welcoming person who believed in me, never judged me, and always showed me kindness and compassion. This was exactly what I needed to start taking some responsibility for my actions. 10 months on I am in much better control and understanding of myself. This has lead to happier relationships with other people, but most importantly a happier relationship with myself!! Though I still have work to do, I have found some of the peace I was looking for in all the wrong places, and it feels great. Thank you for giving me this gift."

B.C 03-12-18.

"I think you helped me save my life."

S.H 21/12/18

Thank you. From all of me to all of you, I cannot thank you enough for supporting this journey. Thinking back to almost any point along the way, when things seemed insurmountable, problems too big, issues too heavy, obstacles too big, I am amazed and so so proud of what we and I, have achieved. The changes so big, so deep, so everlasting, so needed, that my life has changed, is changing and I am blossoming. I have come so far that the horizon is misty, the voices quiet and I can finally see myself in the picture. At the centre of the picture, shimmering. I can see shore, I can see a beautiful sunny day, I can see love and courage, pride and self-respect and they are my life jacket. When my arms get tired and my legs get weak, I now have a beautiful life jacket that we have made, that will help me afloat.

G.R 28-01-19

"I will remember Christian’s quiet patience with me, his gentle guidance, intuition and compassion and his ability to make space for and listen to whatever needed attention at that moment. He provided a place of safety, acceptance, trust, care and belonging, and that place now resides within me. He taught me things I never had a chance to learn before, about myself, my emotions and relating to both myself and others. I finally have a sense of peace about my traumatic childhood and forgiveness towards those who were responsible for the trauma.  I still have challenges to face, but I now have a toolkit to help me and greater confidence that I can deal with whatever life throws at me."

N.L 17-06-19

I consider the time I spent with Christian as an absolute gift to myself. With his unfailing intuitive ability to hear, see and be totally present in a patient, non-judgemental way, he helped me to realise how capable, strong and together I actually am. I feel I have gained a new level of self respect. My gratitude is boundless!

S.M 25-03-20

Christian has been my first and only therapist/councillor for almost a year and within that time he has helped me learn and develop myself into someone i forgot i was once was. I feel like i am at a new beginning of my life where i can leave the past where it belongs and i am now rewriting my present and future. For anyone struggling with themselves and the current circumstances life has lead them to, its important to know its never too late to change direction.


Thank you Christian i hope you realise how amazing you are.

L.P  24-09-20

Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, Somerset, BS9

Type of session

In person
Online
Phone

Types of client

Young people
Adults
Older adults
Couples
Groups