Aileen McDonald
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About me
I work with a variety of people with different issues and I have a particular interest in working with people who are suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, stress, are experiencing difficulties with relationships in their personal life or at work, have low-self-esteem and/or who have experienced bullying now or at some point in their earlier life, the impact of which on one's well-being can be under-estimated.
I am an experienced counsellor and psychotherapist and I incorporate a variety of approaches, based on many years training and experience of different types of therapy, including cutting edge body-oriented therapy. I integrate mindfulness techniques with more traditional talking therapies as I believe this taps into our inner wisdom – to find resources that we may not be aware of, to manage our emotions, to heal ourselves and generally to create more satisfying and fulfilling lives.
I am also interested in working with people who have experienced trauma. In the last 20 years, developments in neuroscience have given a far greater understanding of the psychological and physiological processes involved and newer ways of working have developed that more directly impact the bodily and emotional legacy of trauma. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy addresses the effects of trauma on the nervous system and body without the need to use touch. Mindfulness techniques help to resolve trauma-related body responses before processing emotional responses and meaning-making.
I was a lawyer and manager for many years before training to be a therapist and I bring to my work an awareness of the challenges associated with a corporate environment and my own experience of counselling and psychotherapy.
Training, qualifications & experience
I completed the Oxford Cambridge and RSA certificate in Counselling Skills in 2005 and am a graduate of Spectrum's Psychotherapy training programme. I then went on to accredit with the UKCP in 2011.
I have also completed the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute’s training for the treatment of Trauma, their Advanced training for more complex issues and their training for Developmental Trauma. In 2023, following a further 18 months of training, I I became a certified Sensorimotor therapist. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a cutting-edge, mindfulness-based psychotherapy for trauma, based on the latest research and neuroscience.
I have attended a supervisor training at CSTD.
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by their Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy and am subject to their Professional Conduct procedure.
I previously worked at Hammersmith & Fulham MIND as a volunteer counsellor and then as an assessor, for 5 years. I also volunteered for 2 years as a supervisor at the West London Counselling Centre.
Member organisations
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
£85.00 per session
Additional information
My normal fee for the initial session and for weekly 50 minute sessions is £85 . A lower fee may be negotiable for those on lower incomes.
When I work
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Further information
I offer short-term and longer-term therapy. The first step is to have an initial session, during or after which we will decide whether to work together. (You may want to go away and think about this before making a decision).
