Phil Clarkstone

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Therapeutic Counsellor & Counselling Supervisor
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

Eltham SE9 & Blackheath SE3
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

Therapy is a big commitment and takes courage.  I would like you to find the best support.  Get in touch for a free no-obligation conversation about the help you need.  I want you to feel safe and certain that I am the right therapist for you.

Experience is vital for effective therapy.  I have worked for 24 years as a therapist, and have supervised and managed other therapists for 22 years.   I invite clients to look beyond short-term coping strategies and gimmicks.  I want to invite you to understand the root of your struggle so that you can grow within yourself in the best way in the most supportive environment.

My warmly regarded practice has a reputation for providing a sound and grounded place to be for people struggling with the trials of life.  As you may imagine, I have been present alongside all aspects of emotional turmoil, struggle, and distress during my many years in practice.  

Anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, divorce, and grief, are themes I support people with on a regular basis.  If you are finding life difficult, please get in touch and start the next chapter in a better way.  If you are in times of great change or struggle therapy is a great way to find solid ground beneath your feet.

I have a special interest in bereavement, loss, and change.  To live a full life is to embrace loss so that we can change and grow in our pain.  Whether experiencing illness, bereavement, divorce, relationship breakdown, redundancy, or retirement, these experiences can be transformed through good supportive therapy.

I have worked as a supervisor for 22 years.  I have a broad range of experience in therapeutic work.  My approach is integrative, but I am influenced by Kleinian and Winnicottian thought.  Gentle, informed, accepting, secure and kind facilitation is at the heart of the work: heart-work is better than head-work, and being is better than doing.  Presence is everything.

As well as my private practice, I lead a highly respected, innovative, and thriving charitable mental health service. The service currently supports around 300 people every year and our primary source of referrals is from GPs and health professionals. I have trebled the size of this service since 2004 and have secured funding from the NHS every year. We offer placements to university students in that context.

COVID-19 During the pandemic I was involved in supporting the development and review of COVID-19 bereavement services in the southeast London area.  I have also supported other services looking to improve their coronavirus bereavement support.  I have also worked with numerous people bereaved by COVID-19.  I have also been involved in the evolution of end-of-life care support in southeast London.  

I have a wide network of experienced and trusted colleagues. If I cannot help, I usually know someone else who can.

I offer COVID-secure face-to-face sessions in my office in Eltham, as well as online and telephone sessions.  Sessions last 55 minutes. 

Sessions are £80 but I do have occasional concessionary availability if you are prepared to be flexible.   

Training, qualifications & experience

I have Accredited Register status with BACP.

Qualifications:

MSc Degree in Therapeutic Counselling 2003
Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling 2000
Post Graduate Certificate in Counselling Skills 1999
MSc Degree in the Sociology of Health 1997
Certificate in Supervision 2002
Cruse Awareness in Bereavement Care 1999

BA/Hons Sociology 1993
I have undertaken many, many training sessions and courses since 1998, as well as my formal studies connected to degree work. Far too many to mention.

My Experience:

  • I gained a counselling diploma in 2000 having studied and worked in placements in the previous two years
  • I worked within a staff counselling team, on placement, within a London university, until 2003.
  • I have worked in private practice since 2002.
  • I continue to work as a Manager for a highly regarded, NHS-funded, counselling service in the voluntary sector. I've been in post since 2004.
  • I am an experienced group supervisor and trainer, with experience as a counselling group facilitator.
  • I am a highly experienced telephone and online therapist, my experience in these areas stretches back nearly two decades.

Some other things:

  • I have served on the Greenwich Council Emergency Planning and Liaison Group from 2005 to the present, and also on the Greenwich Safeguarding Children Child Death Overview Panel until 2014.
  • In 2007, I worked with Prof Colin Murray-Parkes to deliver a conference on Love and Loss at the University of Greenwich
  • I am a contributor to the international academic journal Bereavement Care in Practice
  • In 2015, among other projects, I devised "Into The Forest of Loss", a creative visualization using walking, poetry and prose, to facilitate and support healthy grief.
  • My projects in recent years include developing therapeutic work in a prison setting and evolving a model for therapeutic walking to support bereaved people now widely regarded as a ground-breaking new approach to bereavement support and being adopted throughout England and Wales

Member organisations

BACP
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP)

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

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
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.

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

Other areas of counselling I deal with

I have a special interest in the following topics:

  • Anxiety and Low Mood
  • Divorce and the end of relationships
  • Failing relationships
  • Ambivalent and anxious attachment
  • Esteem and our relationship with our inner-child
  • Turning points
  • Controlling and coercive abusive relationships
  • Loss and Change
  • Bereavement
  • Being and Existential Terror

Photos & videos

Fees

£70.00 per session
Free initial telephone or online session

Additional information

  • For individuals: £70
  • For companies: Please contact me on 07876 343669 to discuss your needs.

When I work

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Night

I am available from 8 am to 7 pm on weekdays.

Further information

I offer Zoom, Telephone, and Face to Face support.

My rooms are calm and secluded and designed for the purpose of encouraging a sense of retreat and calm. They are sited in a quiet residential area of Eltham.

I do not work with couples - although I do work with individuals who are in couple counselling elsewhere.

Parking is easy, and I am a short walk from Eltham railway station.

St Luke's Hall, 190 Westmount Road, Eltham, London, SE9 1XY

Blackheath, SE3

Type of session

In person
Online
Phone

Types of client

Adults
Older adults
Organisations
Employee Assistance Programme

Supervision

In person
Online
Phone

I have worked as a supervisor for 20 years.  I have a broad range of experience in therapeutic work.  My approach is integrative, but I am influenced

View supervision profile

Social