Dr Christina Bracegirdle
Every professional displayed on Counselling Directory has been independently verified by our team to ensure they have suitable credentials to practise.
This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Having discovered the benefits of personal counselling when I needed help to manage some of life's experiences I eventually trained as a counsellor myself. Being a client enabled me to make the choice to change and improve my quality of life. Now as a counsellor with more than 20 years experience of working in agency settings and working privately I am able to offer the benefit of a wide range of experience to potential clients. Research has given me access to the client's experience of counselling from their perspective and has both confirmed and added to the value I place on the relationship formed with clients. I work from eclectic/existential perspective as well as linking the way past experiences may impact on the present. The relationship clients form with me enables them to understand what happens in their relationships with others.
Training, qualifications & experience
I took three years working towards a Post graduate diploma in counselling and while training took up a placement within a counselling agency. Some years later I registered as a PhD candidate as I was interested in learning more about the client's experience of counselling. Attaining each of these qualifications changed my life and understanding of the possible impact of counselling.
As a co-ordinator of counselling I gained several years experience of running an agency and also have six years experience as a group supervisor of both trainee and qualified counsellors.
I have worked as a counselling trainer at certificate and diploma levels in both university and agency settings.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
I am able to offer supervision to both trainee and qualified counsellors. As I trained in both psychodynamic and person centred counselling I am able to offer supervision from an eclectic standpoint. I have a strong sense of the importance of empathy both for the client and for the counsellor in supervision.
Therapies offered
Fees
Additional information
Having trained in an agency setting I have a commitment to clients to offer counselling at affordable rates in relation to their income. I therefore base my rates on a sliding scale between £45 and £80 per session so that clients can decide what they think they can afford. Also I am always willing to discuss fees as this is such an important part of the work.
When I work
There are usually daytime appointments available Monday to Friday and I do work some evenings.
Further information
Having experienced some trauma in my own life experience I have added to my training in order to guide others through tramatic experiences. Whether trauma is experienced in childhood or more recently it has a tendency to still bother us in the form of flashbacks and it is possible to work with such experiences in order to move to a more comfortable way of being.
