Nicola Butcher
About me
I am a Senior Accredited Counselling Psychotherapist for both adults and children offering integrative psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. I work in private practice in a quiet location in South Benfleet with good links to A13 and mainline stations and have been established for 10 years.
Specialist Area
Autism Spectrum Disorders including
Aspergers
ADHD
ADD
Dyslexia
Dyscalculia
I am also an experienced counselling supervisor and offer supervision to both students and fully practising members.
In addition to being a Senior Psychotherapist I am also a Clinical Transpersonal Hypnotherapist offering a range of services such as:
- treatment for panic and anxiety
- stress
- smoking cessation
- weight management
- pain management
- exploring the past
- looking for direction
I am a Senior Accredited member of the National Counselling Society, a registered member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and adopt their frameworks of good practice and ethical principles.
I have experience with helping people with a wide variety of emotional issues and believe that I can help you move forward with your life in a way that fits and suits you. In addition to this, I also offer relationship counselling and have a good deal of knowledge in this field to help you both move forward and communicate effectively and honestly.
I have a particular specialist area working with children and adults with learning disabilities, behavioural problems and autistic spectrum disorders. I can help you as the parent of a child come to terms with diagnosis and help you develop strategies to cope with being the carer as well as being the parent. If you have recently been diagnosed with autism or learning disability, this can be a particularly difficult time. I can help you, as an individual, cope with diagnosis, deal with emotions and develop strategies to help you lead a more fulfilling life.
Another area of my work involves helping people with weight loss using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques and working through the emotional issues surrounding it. Counselling can be a very effective additional tool with a weight loss programme. However, before undertaking any sudden changes to your diet, it is important to discuss this with your GP first.
I work in an integrative way, using Transactional Analysis, Person Centred Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
The decision to contact a counsellor is I know and understand (through personal experience) to be a difficult one and in doing so I can assure you that I will treat you with understanding, empathy and honesty. Time and time again I have witnessed peoples journey to recovery with the aid of therapy and firmly believe that being in a non-judgemental environment, with someone who really listens can help with so many problems in life and support you on your life journey.
HYPNOSIS FOR RELAXATION AND A MORE POSITIVE OUTLOOK TO ENHANCE CHANGE
TREATMENT FOR PANIC & ANXIETY
If you are suffering from anxiety or having panic attacks, I can help you learn to identify your triggers and learn how to make the necessary changes in order to help you get back to being you. I use hypnosis relaxation techniques (with positive suggestion) to help you learn to control your anxieties and also incorporate, outside of the relaxation technique, the right therapeutic approach for you to help you move forward with your life.
FOCUSING ON CHANGES
If you are struggling deciding on direction or focusing on which path to follow hypnosis can help you move forward and focus on these decisions. Being in a calm and relaxed state allows you to make decisions more freely.
BRAIN MASSAGE
This is a deep relaxation technique to help battle everyday stress, work related stress or emotional stress. If this is you and at times you can't see the "wood for the trees" relaxation hypnosis techniques can help you process all that information floating around allowing you to clear the path.
WEIGHT REDUCTION
Are you struggling to lose weight? This hypnosis program can help support and motivate you to make the necessary changes that you want to your lifestyle. During the weight management program I can help you address your self-esteem, body image and issues both emotional and psychological around food. If you would like further information regarding the amount of sessions and the costs for this package, please contact me via email or telephone.
Office Hours for bookings, cancellations and enquiries Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Weekends Unavailable.
I will endeavour to respond within 48 hours to a call made within office opening hours, however, enquires on a Friday or over the weekend will be responded to on return to the office either Monday or Tuesday.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a Senior Accredited member of the National Counselling Society, a registered member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and a member of the BABCP (British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies) and adopt their frameworks of good practice and ethical principles.
I have extensive experience as a psychotherapist and counsellor and I have helped a vast amount of people come to terms with and face their issues, leading them to a more fulfilling life.
In addition to being a counsellor and cognitive behavioural therapist, I have over 15 years childcare and teaching experience, working with both children and adults with special needs. I believe that my experience has become invaluable within my work and my understanding of children and young adults with special needs and learning difficulties.
I also spent two years working as a counsellor and tutor at the Dyslexia Consultancy in Writtle with children and adolescents on the autistic spectrum. During this time I also worked as a counsellor for MIND Counselling Service working with adults and adolescents with moderate to severe mental health and emotional problems.
I currently work in private practice in Benfleet and also work as a counselling tutor for local colleges delivering the AQA counselling qualification. In addition to this I also work for Family Learning delivering "building self esteem" courses as part of a local outreach programme to local primary schools and children's centres.
In addition to being a counsellor I also work as a counselling supervisor. Supervision is provided for both student and qualified counsellors.
My current qualifications are as follows:
Diploma in Clinical Transpersonal Hypnotherapy
- Stress and anxiety
- smoking cessation
- weight management
- pain management
- relaxation
Supervision Certificate
Practitioners Diploma in CBT
- Group Therapy
- Family Therapy
- Relationship Counselling
- Solution Focused Brief Therapy
AQA Advanced Diploma in Counselling
- Therapeutic Practice
- Transactional Analysis
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Developing Practitioner
AQA Intermediate Certificate in Counselling
- Counselling Skills
- Working with Grief & Loss
BACP Certificate of Proficiency
Registered Member of BACP 630376
Accredited Member of National Counselling Society NCS14-00649
National Counselling Society Approved Supervisor
CPD - Psychopharmacology & Counselling & Pschotherapy
C & G PTTLS (Adult Teaching Qualification)
ECC Child Protection Certificate
Paediatric First Aid
CACHE Level 3 Certificate in Childcare Practices
Therapies Offered
Integrative in order to meet what your need's are, using:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Transactional Analysis
Person Centred Therapy
Clinical Hypnotherapy
I am fully CRB checked to work with both adults and children and hold a paediatric first aid certificate.
Member organisations
Registered / Accredited
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.

National Counselling Society
The National Counselling Society
This Not For Profit association of counsellors and psychotherapists aim to support the counselling profession, members and training organisations.
In 2013 the NCS register was accredited by the Professional Standards Authority under the Accredited Voluntary Register Scheme. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
BACP is one of the UK’s largest professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy. Therapists registered with the Association fall into a number of different membership categories such as Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP and Registered Member MBACP (Accred), each standing for different levels of training and experience. MBACP (Accred) and MBACP (Snr Accred) members have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by the Association.
Registered members can be found on the BACP Register, which was the first register to achieve Accredited Voluntary Register status issued by the Professional Standards Authority. Individual Members will have completed an appropriate counselling and/or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but will not appear on the BACP Register until they've progressed to Registered Member MBACP status.
All members are bound by a Code of Ethics & Practice and a Complaints Procedure. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership

Accredited Register Scheme
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.


Accredited Register Scheme
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
Work Related Stress
Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Learning Disabilities
Parenting Problems
Therapies offered
Upcoming events
Fees
Therapeutic Fees
Individuals - £45 per 50 minute session
Couples - £60 per 50 minute session
Families - £65
Hypnotherapy and therapeutic intervention - £70 (1 hour)
Supervision - £40 per hour (reduced rates offered for students)
For people on low incomes you can see a student counsellor for £15 per session. There are limited places available. All students are supervised by me.
MEMBER ORGANISATIONS
NCS (National Counselling Association) - Senior Accredited Member
NCS Approved Supervisor
BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapies) - Full Registered Member
Further information
AUTISM SPECIALIST
Help with coming to terms with personal diagnosis or diagnosis of your child and the issues and stress surrounding this.
PLEASE NOTE:
Office opening hours are 9am to 5pm (Monday to Friday). Response to enquiries and requests can take up to 2/3 working days. However, we endeavour to respond sooner than this. The office is closed at weekends.
Due to high demand, I am currently operating a 4 to 5 week waiting list.