Christine Blake
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
My Approach:
My approach to counselling and psychotherapy is founded on my theoretical training and clinical experience which highlights the importance of relationships in helping to shape our experiences in early childhood and throughout our lives. My practice is also underpinned by in depth knowledge of trauma, abuse and loss with a background of 25 years of working with people in the community.
I see counselling and psychotherapy as a joint venture in which each therapeutic relationship is unique. You are your own expert and my role is to bring my skills and experience to facilitate and empower you to get in touch with your own meaning and purpose.
The counselling and psychotherapy I offer can be short term, which may be helpful to work through a difficult current experience, or long term enabling an in depth exploration of the underlying issues which can prevent you from moving forward in your life.
Why Attachment-based?
As an attachment-based practitioner, I work in a relational way to support you to build a sense of security in yourself and your relationships with others. I see this as vital to support you to develop your internal resources to cope with the many challenges life brings and be able to experience more joy.
Why Psychoanalytic?
Through a psychoanalytic approach I offer support to make sense of and find strategies to address unconscious thoughts that can lead to frustrating and repetitive behavioural patterns that can keep you stuck and prevent you from achieving your full potential.
Why Counselling and Psychotherapy?
Everyone comes to counselling or psychotherapy with their own experiences and needs. I am practiced in supporting people to address a whole range of difficulties. The counselling and psychotherapy I provide can help you to:
- Receive support to cope at a time of crisis.
- Address any difficulties in personal relationships, at work, or any other area of your life.
- Explore any experiences of violence, sexual abuse, bullying, or neglect.
- Explore any problems with sex, sexuality or confusion about who you are.
- Cope with acute or chronic illness, bereavement, or loss.
- Make sense of and find alternatives to destructive patterns - addictions, phobias and obsessions, eating problems and self harm.
- Address deep seated feelings of anger and hurt, including coping with anxiety, depression, or suicidal feelings.
- Share empty, lonely, abandoned feelings, and explore ways to care for yourself emotionally in your relationships and build self esteem.
- Explore how the issues that you bring to counselling or psychotherapy interact with your experiences in relation to race, culture, gender, sexuality, class, age disability, or any other aspect of your identity.
- Share your feelings in a safe and confidential environment and receive support to work on the issues of concern in your life.
How To Get In Touch:
If you would like to make any further enquiries, you are welcome to contact me to set up an initial telephone call to explore any questions you have.
If you decide to proceed we can then arrange an initial session to talk about your difficulties and how the counselling or psychotherapy I provide can support you, in order to explore if it feels right for you.
Training, qualifications & experience
My Training:
I have undertaken an intensive 4 year psychotherapy training at The Bowlby Centre, which is highly regarded for it's cutting edge work in relation to attachment, trauma and inclusion.
My Qualifications:
I qualified as an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist registered with the UKCP in 2006. I also hold a certificate in Counselling Skills and Groupwork from City University.
My Experience:
My past experience of working with trauma, abuse and loss includes setting up a counselling helpline and working with survivors of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. It is through working with a diverse range of people in the community over the last 25 years that I appreciate how important it is to have good relationships and how much people struggle with feeling abandoned and alone, sometimes in the face of terrible depression, anxiety and loss. The most effective way to tackle these kinds of feelings is by having a secure relationship. In fact, research findings indicate that the most important predictor of a good outcome to counselling or psychotherapy is the quality of the relationship between therapist and client.
Through my training at The Bowlby Centre I have been grateful to develop a theoretical understanding of how we form relationships and ways of working therapeutically that can make a difference when relationships go wrong. No-one should be alone, especially when in distress. Even if you have people around you it may be difficult to get the support you need. Through an effective therapeutic relationship it is possible to work through painful feelings and by slowly learning to trust an ongoing therapeutic relationship be empowered to engage in the world in a new way.
After I completed my psychotherapy training at The Bowlby Centre, I was co-opted onto the Executive Committee responsible for running the Organisation. I managed the Referrals Service, as well as teaching clinical gender studies and professional ethics on the teaching curriculum to trainee psychotherapists. Through this work I have gained an in depth knowledge of my profession. In my field the importance of continuing professional development is recognised as vital to ensure that practitioners remain robust and keep abreast of new developments.
I currently work in private clinical practice and continue to be active in the psychotherapy world. I am an approved Bowlby Centre training therapist and supervisor for people in the process of qualifying to become psychotherapists.
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.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.
As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.
UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
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
Disssociation, loss, rape, relationship violence and abuse, breakdown, attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, feelings of loneliness, emptiness and meaninglessness
Therapies offered
Fees
£75.00 - £85.00
Free initial telephone session
Additional information
I offer a sliding scale for counselling and psychotherapy between £70 and £85, depending on your income and other variables like location and time of day. Please enquire if you are not sure if you can afford counselling or psychotherapy as I offer some low cost places to those who could not otherwise access the service.
When I work
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Further information
I have availability for online video and telephone counselling, psychotherapy and supervision.
Please note currently I only have availability for in person counselling, psychotherapy and supervision at my Central London location in W1 a short 5-10 minute walk from Oxford Circus or Bond Street.
