Mark Snelling
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This professional has no current availability for new clients. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional has no current availability for new clients. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
Hello, I'm Mark, and welcome to my profile. I am an experienced counsellor and psychotherapist, drawing on many years of international work and clinical practice. I have a particular specialism in working with trauma, but I also respond to a broad spectrum of difficulties, including depression, anxiety, relationship problems and burnout.
I work online with both individuals and couples in the UK and around the world. I also offer face-to-face appointments in my office on the outskirts of Exeter in southwest England.
How counselling can help
Whether you're feeling sad, angry, afraid, lonely or just plain lost, it is my experience that the decision to seek help is an act of courage and resilience. I commend you for taking this step.
Counselling and psychotherapy offer a protected space to explore and process anxieties, fears and hopes. They also provide an opportunity to identify fixed and self-defeating patterns of behaviour and relating, in a way that opens up fresh and creative ways of responding to the challenges of life.
My approach
My therapeutic approach is grounded in attachment theory, which offers a roadmap for understanding how early experiences can shape the way we relate to both ourselves and others as we grow older. While it is problems with these patterns that often bring people to therapy, I am guided by the strong evidence that it is the relationship between the therapist and client that is the most powerful vehicle for growth and change. I am fully trained in Emotionally Focussed Therapy (EFT), an attachment-based therapy for individuals and couples.
I also specialise in working with trauma and am a fully accredited practitioner of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), an extensively validated trauma treatment. I work with the full range of traumatic experience, including childhood abuse, sexual violence, military combat, kidnap and torture.
Other key areas of experience and expertise include addiction and workplace stress. I also have additional training in online counselling and offer sessions via webcam, e-mail, Instant Messaging and telephone.
Getting started
I offer an initial consultation, free of charge, so that you get the chance to meet me without any sense of pressure or obligation and I welcome any questions you might have. If we then feel that we would work well together, we can discuss how many sessions to arrange.
Training, qualifications & experience
Alongside my private practice, I have worked in organisational and charity settings as well as the National Health Service (NHS). I have been fortunate to work with a great diversity of clients from a range of social, cultural, ethnic and faith groups.
I have specialist expertise in psychological trauma and have supported many clients through the aftermath of overwhelming events, both in the UK and overseas. Other key areas of experience include workplace stress and addiction.
I have long experience of supporting expatriates, including aid workers, missionaries, journalists, diplomats and military personnel. Prior to training as a therapist, I was first a foreign correspondent and then an international aid worker.
I have been privileged to study at a number of centres of national and global excellence in counselling, psychotherapy and psychosocial research, where I have achieved the following qualifications:
- MSc Therapeutic Practice for Psychological Trauma - Distinction (Chester University)
- EMDR Europe Accredited Practitioner in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) - International Centre for Excellence in EFT (ICEEFT) - Externship and Core Skills
- Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling (University of Brighton and Wpf Therapy, London)
- Certificate in Understanding Trauma: Principles and Practice (Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, London)
- Certificate in Counselling Skills (Wpf Therapy, London)
- Accredited (British Psychoanalytic Council) practitioner of Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT)
- Certificate in Online Counselling (OSCE, UK)
- Accredited to use the Attachment Style Interview (ASI)
- Trained practitioner of the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), a biological-based system for reducing and eliminating the symptoms of traumatic stress.
- Trained practitioner of Trauma Risk Management (TRiM), a peer support protocol developed by the UK Armed Forces
- Qualified Workplace Mediator
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.
EMDR Europe
The Association of Christian Counsellors and Linked Professions is a professional body representing and setting standards for Christian counselling and care in the UK. The organisation is made up of various different membership categories, including Counsellor and Accredited, and requires all members working as counsellors to undertake Continuous Professional Development on a regular basis.
The Association for Counselling and Therapy Online
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
Other areas in which I have undertaken continuing professional development (CPD) include Motivational Interviewing (MI), Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), Responding to Kidnap, Crisis Management, Psychosocial Responses to Disasters, Psychopharmacology and Ecotherapy.
I have extensive experience supporting people in workplace settings.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£80.00 - £100.00
Free initial in-person, telephone or online session
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
My fees are £80 per session for individuals, £90 for couples and £100 for insurance referrals.
I accept payment by cash, cheque or bank transfer. I invoice on-going clients at the end of each month.
When I work
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Further information
For face-to-face clients, there is a dedicated parking bay near my office.
