Livia Shepherd
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Counselling provides a safe, supportive place for you to talk in complete confidence about your life and issues. We all go through times where we feel confused or stuck and can’t figure out the best way forward or how to cope. You may be experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, relationship issues or generally feeling unhappy and unfulfilled with your life.
As a counsellor I will listen to you, I won’t judge or criticise, I will try to understand things from your point of view. Through listening and interacting a therapeutic relationship develops between us. This therapeutic relationship is facilitative and can allow you to see things differently, gain understanding of yourself, your feelings and motives and potentially move forward in a way you decide.
I am a professionally trained Person-Centred therapist. In short this means I always work with you as the focus. I believe that you are the expert on yourself, not me, although you may perhaps not feel that way at the present time. The content of the sessions is determined by you and we work together with whatever you choose to bring.
Whatever is discussed in the sessions is completely confidential. I aim to create a space where you feel safe and where a trusting relationship develops between us. Through your experience of this relationship, where you will feel valued and understood, you will begin to see things in a different way, perhaps shedding light on old issues and potentially enabling you to find a solution or acceptance.
Talking about your feelings and thoughts, whatever they may be, can be a powerful experience. Counselling is not a quick fix and can sometimes be hard going but the potential benefits are limitless. Counselling helps you to find and accept your own answers.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling - Metanoia Institute - London
- BSc (Hons) in Psychology - University & College of Wales - Swansea
- Advanced Post-Diploma Certificate in Person-Centred Couples Counselling
- Nature-based Psychotherapy - 2019
- Certificate in the Essentials of Gender & Sexual Diversity Therapy - Pink Therapy - London 2017
- Certificate in Counselling Skills - Reading College
- Enhanced DBS checked and certified
I am an Accredited Registered Member of the BACP (British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy). I fully adhere to their guidelines and practice in line with the BACP ethical framework.
I have been a practising counsellor since 2007 working both in private practice and in a local authority agency setting. This has given me experience of working with both adults and young people from all walks of life bringing a diverse range of issues.
I am committed to ongoing professional and personal development and have completed various CPD courses and workshops. Recently these include -
- Self Harm
- Sexual Preoccupation
- Domestic Abuse
- Silence, Intimidation and Fear working with young people
- Analytical approaches to working with myth, movement and metaphor in therapy
- Working with clients bereaved by suicide
- Impact of pornography and the sexualisation of young people
- Sexual Abuse
- Shame
- Working with Psychosis
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
Fees
£55.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
Sessions for individual clients run for 50 minutes and cost £55 per session. I run a limited number of reduced rate sessions for students. Sessions for couples run for 60 minutes and are £65 per session. I am a BUPA and WPA Approved Therapist.
We can work together to an agreed, fixed number of sessions in the short or longer term or on an ongoing basis. We will discuss what would most suit you in the initial session.
I can offer weekday daytime and evening appointments. Weekend sessions possible by request.
When I work
Weekday daytime and evening appointments available. Weekend sessions possible by request.
