Paul Mcfarland
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Greetings, and welcome to my profile. I have 15 years’ experience as a therapist in private practice, helping both individuals and couples. I specialise foremostly in relationships and marriages. I am available for face-to-face sessions in both Didcot and Reading, and also offer online sessions. I offer both short-term and long-term therapy, depending on your needs.
Therapy sessions represent a special place where you can be really listened to, genuinely heard, and understood just as you are, without judgement. A counselling journey can gradually guide you from a difficult place of anxiety and despair to a much better one of peace, happiness and strength.
Couples
I have guided hundreds of couples to a better place, and would be happy to help you improve your relationship or marriage. A time of crisis in your relationship represents the ideal opportunity to discover a new way of being present with one another.
My approach emphasises empathic communication and re-establishing healthy connection. I support couples to stay emotionally and physically connected, and show them how to build a revitalised relationship-culture based on friendship and mutual appreciation.
In couple therapy you will learn how to communicate effectively with your partner in a way that is both supportive and inquisitive, as opposed to being hostile and unfriendly. In this way hope and interpersonal presence can be restored in your relationship.
I help clients to be emotionally engaged and thus accessible and responsive to one another. You will learn to settle differences in a kind, supportive and collaborative manner. Acceptance, forgiveness, and mutual understanding are also themes that feature in my work with couples.
My methods are especially useful to those who find themselves arguing regularly. Conflict can be re-construed as an opportunity to learn more about oneself and your partner, and to enhance closeness and intimacy.
If you no longer feel like a team, I can show you how to foster connection and harmony, and thereby rediscover your emotional bond. Couple counselling also helps with healing ruptures in relationship, or a loss of trust. I have helped many, many couples recover from infidelity.
Individuals
My approach to working with individuals involves finding creative solutions to persistent problems or recurring patterns. I draw on insight from multiple traditions to help you find a better way forward in life. My areas of specialisation are anxiety, stress and depression, or any form of compulsive behaviour.
My emphasis in counselling individuals involves restorative emotional work. This in turn comprises a healing journey uniquely tailored to your needs. It is a gentle method that equips you with the ability to draw on your own inner wisdom to address the challenges of modern living. As our work together progresses, you will discover outdated patterns of being that have become rigid being gradually replaced with a more fluid and open flexibility.
About me
As a Humanistic counsellor, I practice an integration of the person-centred, existential, gestalt, and transpersonal modalities. My practice comprises a unique blend of East and West, modern and ancient, and psychology and spirituality.
I am originally American but have now lived in the UK for 35 years.
My personal background being rooted in Eastern spirituality, I welcome anyone interested in deriving benefit from ancient wisdom traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, or Chinese philosophy. I have been practising meditation my entire adult life and am also a meditation teacher. I live a holistic lifestyle involving multiple approaches to self-care, and would be happy to help you do the same.
I also work very well with anyone from South Asian or of South Asian heritage, as I have lived in India extensively and understand the language and culture.
Training, qualifications & experience
First-class BA (hons) Counselling degree from the University of Greenwich
Certificate in Couple Dynamics
Certificate in Counselling Supervision
I am an Accredited Professional of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) and abide by their professional code of ethics.
I am committed to ongoing professional development, and have undertaken learning on the following topics:
Mindfulness
Autism spectrum
Personality disorders
Addictions
Bereavement
Attachment theory
Self-help and self-improvement
Life coaching
Self-awareness
Self-empowerment
Buddhist psychology
Member organisations
school 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.
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 National Counselling and Psychotherapy 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.
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 also work with spiritual or religious issues and transcultural issues.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£70.00 per session
Additional information
For a single 50-minute session my fees are £70 for individuals and £80 for couples. My fees for a one-hour session of clinical supervision are £65.
I have availability on weekdays and weekday evenings, as well as on weekends.
Parking is available in my driveway.
Bathroom facilities are available.
Further information
I also offer online counselling sessions via video-link using GoogleMeet, FaceTime or Skype.
