Fiona Richards-Buckle

About Me - Counselling, Therapy & Social Work Solutions

Welcome to Counselling, Therapy & Social Work Solutions. I aim to offer a safe, affordable, warm, healing, compassionate, confidential and non-judgemental therapy and counselling space in a private consultation room within a peaceful garden setting in the Uplands area of Swansea or at The Life Therapy Centre, 1 Pell Street, Swansea SA1 3ES. In both settings clients including individuals with special needs or disabilities, are supported to express their feelings and to work towards and achieve their life choices & goals.

• Appointments for individuals & couples in my private consultation room in the Uplands, at the Life Therapy Centre 1 Pell Street, Swansea SA13ES or at a mutually agreed location, taking into account any Special Needs, Disability and Client Wishes. As an experienced  Registered Social Worker with  experience of working therapeutically with Children and Families, I am also able to apply counselling skills & therapeutic approaches in working directly with family groups.
• Free parking close to my consultation room in the Uplands
• Free no obligation 15 minute initial telephone consultation, to see if I can offer you a service appropriate to your needs
• £40 per 55 minute counselling fee, with reduction where clients are experiencing hardship
• Private or referred clients
• Fully Insured Integrative Counsellor/Therapist adhering to British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) standards
• Registered Integrative Counsellor with British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists;
• Registered Social Worker with Social Care Wales;

Through my Counsellor training & role & previous qualified Social Worker training & work as a Child & Family worker for NCH Action for Children, Social Worker, Senior Child & Family Social Worker & Inspector for Children’s & Vulnerable Adults Care & Social Services I have over 17 years experience of applying counselling skills & working therapeutically with individuals including vulnerable adults, individuals who have experienced trauma & loss, adolescents, children & families. This has included working in an intensive referral only family centre, a mental health setting integrating a systemic family therapy approach with counselling & social work training & in a project supporting families in relation to needs arising from drug & alcohol dependency.

My experience includes working with individuals, young people, & families who have issues arising from relationship, anxiety, depression, mental illness, stress, addictions, fears, anger management or from historic life events such as sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse & other traumas, bereavement, separation, fostering & adoption.

My approach usually includes integrating person-centred humanistic counselling principles& counselling skills with a cognitive behavioural therapy or solution focused approach, or integrating solution-focused brief therapy, transactional analysis, attachment theory, attachment focused theraplay and/or a needs led approach, chosen in discussion with the client & according to her/his wishes & feelings. I am not a qualified family therapist but, as an experienced qualified Social Worker & having trained under two systemic family therapists firstly as a trainee Social Worker, then as a trainee Integrative Counsellor, I can also incorporate aspects of Systemic Family Therapy & Social Work thinking into Counselling sessions, where appropriate, also building on the strengths of individual members to consider what is already working and "...times when the problem could have happened but did not...".

In addition to using Counselling Principles & Skills through therapeutic conversations, I have a wide range of counselling “tools” to “fit” with client needs and different developmental stages’ including picture “strength” cards, stones, candles, guided visualisation, paper, art & drawing tools, stress, anger management and relaxation techniques and strategies for building confidence, improving self- care and increasing safe, regulated behaviours.  I am also a singer-songwriter & musician and am happy to consider incorporating music, poetry & writing into therapeutic sessions, dependent upon the wishes and feelings of my clients.

Specialisms- adoption, fostering & parenting

My Specialisms include adoption, fostering and parenting.  My experience of working for NCH Action for Children as a child & family worker included facilitating parent/child activities to help improve relationships between family members, carrying out direct work with children individually or in groups with a range of tools including paper, paints, play dough, sand, sylvanian animals & my facilitating groups for adults such as positive behaviour management, assertiveness & anger management groups;  I also have training & experience in applying counselling skills with survivors of child sexual abuse. As a fully qualified & experienced social worker & as a working mother I have both professional & personal  experience of responding to issues arising through fostering, adoption & disability;  I am of dual cultural heritage and the second generation of a migrant parent, so have direct experience of issues arising linked to ethnicity, which informs my counselling approach.  I have received short term training in response to needs linked to separation, loss, trauma & attachment from highly regarded experts such as Vera Fahlberg, Kate Cairns, Dan Hughes and Theraplay Institute trainers at Family Futures Adoption Consortium, London. Where appropriate, I can integrate attachment theories into my counselling & therapy to build & strengthen attachments & to increase positive mental health, for example along the theraplay lines of structure, nurture, challenge and joyful engagement & the approach of  Dan Hughes from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy using Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (P.A.C.E.) to support positive change. Dependent on client need, I am also experienced in integrating elements of Egan’s 3 stage model,  transactional analysis and the Solution Focused Brief Therapy competency based model, to help clients to develop more constructive narratives – in some cases from “hopeless and helpless” to “hopeful and confident ”.

Reflective practice & Continuous personal & professional Development

In line with BACP requirements, I participate in continuous professional development, regular supervision & reflective practice. Counselling sessions are reviewed & evaluated to make sure they are helpful to my clients - please scroll down to read about my evaluation & positive testimonials. For my own healing & development I have participated in bereavement counselling, post traumatic stress counselling, Integrative person centred counselling, transactional analysis & monthly life coaching. I was an active member of a weekly Jungian dream course and group in Sydney, Australia where focus was upon sharing support within the group for members of the group to understand and integrate the messages within dreams from our unconscious mind.  I am a long term member of a therapeutic peer support group where I work on my own goals for personal development and emotional wellbeing.  My own self care includes aerobic exercise, yoga, expressing feelings as a singer songwriter & musician & spending time with family, friends & pets, within Coronavirus restrictions. Mindfulness training, heart math personal resilience training & my  participation in a 3 Principles group have helped me with being a reflective practitioner, & to further process issues which have arisen in my personal life.

If the areas you wish to focus on are not listed above, please feel free to make enquiries.  By using  a humanistic person centred approach & integrating other training where appropriate e.g. solution focused brief therapy- focusing on solutions & moving away from problems -  it is possible that you can still be supported to achieve your goals, even if they are not listed above. This can be explored in an initial no obligation free 45 minute face to face consultation.

I offer a free 15 minute Initial Phone, online or face to face Consultation, dependent on client wishes. 

55 minute Counselling Session - £35 to £45

Concessions are available where clients are on benefits, students or experiencing hardship - please ask about this

Evaluation/effectiveness of counselling & how I can help you to achieve your goals: I evaluate my service using scaling questions and/or Core 10 (a form with 10 questions to explore where the client is feeling at the start and/or end of counselling) and/or Core end of counselling questionnaire.

I have often received positive feedback from clients & referring professionals. Some people participating in counselling have made the changes they wish to make in their lives after 1 to 3 sessions only, whilst others may take longer before they feel they have achieved their goals. A simple “...on a scale of 1 to 10…” question with clients during the first session helps her/him to see where the client is in relation to their goal/s. This can be reviewed at the start & end of each session & at later sessions to show progress made.

Example of Scaling Progress Made:

One adult client who self evaluated her progress on a scale of 1-10, (when 1 was “hopeless & helpless” and 10 was hopeful & confident”)…assessed at her first review that she had moved from a 2 to a 6, then from a 6 to an 8 at her second & final review.

Testimonials:

“...Counselling is going good. It has helped me to be more confident and to talk about stuff I could not talk about before. I used to keep it all up inside & now I can tell people how I feel…” A, age 15

“… the time I have had with Fiona has helped me to see things more clearly and given me self confidence—I have started a university course...I want to say thank you for how far you have brought me forward from where I was. Out of all the meetings I have attended over the years, today was the first meeting I did not cry in. Now that is an achievement for me!...I now realise I feel more confident with a sense of relief, my shoulders feel lighter… B, adult carer

“… this is the best referral I have ever made…”  Fostering Support Social Worker

“...I have found the counselling sessions really positive..."C, adult client…”