Malcolm Couldridge
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am an accredited/registered and experienced integrative psychotherapist and counsellor based in Southdown, Harpenden, Hertfordshire.
I provide a safe and confidential space where you can work with me in your own time and at your own pace to resolve personal issues, review coping strategies, change unhelpful patterns of behaviour, increase self-awareness, improve self esteem, manage anxiety, panic and stress, and learn to live and relate more healthily and more creatively.
Therapeutic work involves listening actively and creatively, providing you with opportunities to reflect on your experience and unravel and find expression for thoughts and feelings that can feel stuck, confusing, in a muddle, distressing or disturbing. It can provide a useful space for looking at both current and historic issues in a new light.
The way we work will depend on the issues you want to talk about. A key element will be the therapeutic relationship that grows between us. For this to happen successfully, it is important to build a strong sense of trust that whatever you want to talk about will be received and responded to sensitively and productively.
Speaking about difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences is not always easy. Therefore we will work together to support you to talk freely and openly, gain a better, deeper understanding and acceptance of who you are, and to find new and more effective ways of responding to personal situations and circumstances that may be unrewarding, unsatisfying and perhaps a cause of unhappiness, distress or trauma. Sometimes it can be a space for re-discovery of self and even celebration.
At present, I work one-to-one and offer face-to-face and, in particular circumstances, Skype, Zoom or telephone sessions. I also offer counselling and other support for organisations and employee assistance providers both 'locally and wider afield, including internationally (NB. As many employers offer free access to brief counselling, it might be worth asking your employer/HR/Occupational Health if they are subscribed to an EAP). Issues I work with include depression, anxiety, stress, bereavement, problems in relationship and anger management.
I offer both longer- and shorter-term counselling and psychotherapy and we can talk about what approach might be more suitable for you as part of the initial assessment that we will complete together.
Currently I also offer supervision/emotional etc support to school teaching and support staff.
I am a qualified mediator available to work in workplaces and other settings.
If you have any questions or want to find out more, by all means call, email or text me, whichever is best for you.
I look forward to hearing from you and speaking with you.
Training, qualifications & experience
Relevant qualifications:
- MA and Post-Graduate Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling (2002 - The Minster Centre).
- UKCP Accreditation and Registration.
- Certificate in Telephone Counselling (1992, Childline).
- PTLLS -teaching qualification (2010).
- Parentlink - Parent Training Qualification.
Experience:
- Psychotherapist and counsellor (current, practicing since qualification in 2002).
- Employee Assistance Programme (brief session work) counsellor (current).
- Trainer - Social Care and Personal Development.
- City & Guilds Assessor: National Advocacy Qualification.
- Mental Health Advocacy Supervision (current).
- Mental Health Advocacy (1999-2010).
- Counsellor: London-based Mental Health Counselling Service (2001-08).
- Social care including service management (1980-2006).
- Parentlink Trainer and Group Coordinator (1994-1998).
- Childline Telephone Counsellor (1992-94).
- Social Care: mental health - in-patient and community, learning disabilities, autism, children and adolescents (1980-ongoing).
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.
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.
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
EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE SHORT TERM COUNSELLING.
NB. Please call if you have questions or want to discuss concerns not in the above list.
Therapies offered
Fees
£70.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
£70. 50 minutes. Daytimes & evenings. Some concessions are available - please ask.
First session/assessment only charged if you decide to go forward. This gives an opportunity to decide that I am the right person for you.
When I work
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Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. No availability currently. As I do some short-term work, spaces do become available. I keep a waiting list and will update you accordingly.
Further information
My approach to therapy and counselling is founded in and draws from a rich variety of approaches to human development and relationship and integrates psycho-dynamic, humanistic and other thinking about who we are and how we relate to ourselves and each other. This stems from my experience that no one approach can describe or address the complex nature of who we are and who we can become.
My interest in psychotherapy arises from my own continuing journey of self-discovery, which has included individual and group therapy, over 30 years of experience working with a wide range of different people and settings, and ongoing training and reading.
I have a particular interest in the way that music and film interacts with and impacts on our daily lives.
I also offer training for organisations in a range of social care-related subjects (e.g., working with challenging behaviour and aggression, counselling and listening skills, risk management, introduction to mental health, boundaries and good practice, person-centred planning, Mental Capacity Act/DoLs, effective advocacy), and other areas (e.g., stress management, time management, assertiveness and parenting).
