About me
Hi, my name is Alison and I am a fully qualified BACP Accredited and Relate trained counsellor working in the Maidstone area, with over 17 year's experience counselling individuals, couples, and young people and children over the age of 11 years. I have also worked in local schools to provide counselling support for teenagers and for the last 14 years I have worked with children, young people and adults with autism and ADHD.
I offer counselling sessions in my air conditioned counselling room separate to my house and I also offer online counselling via zoom. Remote sessions can work very successfully for lots of clients if getting out is difficult and can offer some valuable support if face to face sessions are not possible.
How Counselling can Help:
Counselling can make such a difference to people's lives. It is a safe place to talk, where people can come and feel supported and listened to at a time in their lives when they need it most. But it is more than that, it also offers an opportunity to raise self-awareness and understand our own feelings and emotions which can, in turn improve our resilience and ability to cope.
"Happiness is not the absence of problems. It is the ability to deal with them".
I use an integrative approach to provide support, empathy and practical interventions to try to promote positive change. However, the most important aspect of successful counselling I believe, is that you feel understood and supported and develop a strong and trusting therapeutic relationship with your counsellor as this will provide the foundation for a positive counselling experience and help build self confidence and belief that you can go forward to live the life you want.
"Life doesn't get easier - you just get stronger!"
My Experience:
Counselling Individuals:
I work with individuals to provide support and understanding around issues such as anxiety, social anxiety, anger management and anger issues, depression, grief, feeling sad, generalised anxiety disorder, low self esteem and lack of confidence, dealing with difficult feelings and emotional regulation and panic attacks and also to explore and understand how we connect with others and manage relationships, past and present. Perhaps also most importantly to help increase self awareness and understanding of the relationship we have with ourselves -which influences all areas of our lives, both practically and emotionally.
Relationship and Couple Counselling:
I am an Accredited member of the (BACP) British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and my initial training was with Relate therefore, I have extensive experience working with couples on all aspects of relational difficulties, such as communication, managing difficult feelings and emotions, understanding buried resentments which can cause coldness and conflict; the impact on relationships of affairs and also the stresses of managing significant life stages such as the birth of a baby, managing mid life or retirement, in fact all areas which can cause distress and disappointment in life.
Counselling Children over age 11 and Young People and Young Adults:
I have worked for many years counselling children and young people (teenagers) and use a strength based approach to increase self esteem by trying to highlight and explore their individual strengths rather than focusing solely on problems and weaknesses. I have also worked in local secondary schools where I encourage young people to find a way to talk about the difficulties they may be encountering. These might include anxiety, bullying, self harm, family issues, depression, sleeplessness or often extremely challenging behaviour or emotional outbursts, at school and at home which can be difficult for everyone to understand or deal with. Practically, we try to understand and process difficult emotions and then work on finding coping strategies which will enhance emotional regulation and help improve their self esteem, confidence and resilience and ability to cope with the demands of day to day life which can often include complicated family situations and pressures of school and adolescent life.
I have also worked at a pupil referral and student support unit counselling teenagers at high risk of permanent exclusion often due to their extreme and challenging behaviour and emotional difficulties.
Counselling Individuals and Children and Young People with Autism and ADHD (or often a combination of both):
I have worked for over 14 years counselling young people and children over the age of 11 with Autism and ADHD in my private practice and at specialist schools, to help them understand their emotions and find a way to talk about their anxieties and the difficulties they may be experiencing regarding social anxiety, peer relationships, masking, family communications or low self esteem which may be related to their neurodiversity. I have also been a Specialist Mental Health Mentor supporting young people with Autism at local colleges and in further education.
I also work extensively in my Private Practice with individuals, children over aged 11, young adults with autism, or perhaps couples or families where there is a neurodivergent family member, to try to increase awareness and understanding around this and help those with neurodiversity to move forwards and live life authentically as themselves. Also to try to increase awareness and understanding of ADHD and ASD so there is an increase in the compassion and understanding around the individual, of the different needs we might all have.
NEW ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR PARENTS OF NEURODIVERSE CHILDREN AND TEENS :
Support session with Therapeutic Interventions for Parents of Neurodivergent Young People:
I am so often approached by parents requesting counselling support for their child aged 10 or 11 on the transition to secondary school. This can be an overwhelming experience for young people who are neurodiverse often resulting in school avoidance or refusal, physical symptoms of anxiety or a sudden and dramatic change in behaviour. I thought it would be helpful therefore, in addition to offering counselling support to young people, to also offer a support session for parents of neurodiverse children, with suggestions of therapeutic supportive interventions, which I am hopeful will then help their child to increase their ability to cope, and increase parental capacity and understanding in the family as a whole.
This would entail a 2 hour stand alone session with parents only, discussing your child's personal difficulties and experiences and then exploring together different ways and suggested therapeutic interventions that could help support them, based upon my 14 years experience working with these young people in my counselling work. There would also be some handouts which I consider might be helpful to you as parents. We could have a one hour follow up session 4 week's or so later if required. Please contact me by email if this is something you might be interested in.
My Approach:
Whether it is with children or families, couples or individuals, the basis of my approach is that we can explore together the difficulties you may be facing at this time. This can include anxiety or depression, procrastination and lack of motivation, relationship breakdowns or separation, rows and conflict, affairs or bereavement and grief, family stress, and often perhaps unresolved issues from the past. Life must be lived forwards - but often it can only be understood backwards.
The effects of these problems can lead people to feel unwell or overwhelmed or perhaps unable to engage with others or cope with day to day life and can lead to strong feelings of disappointment and sadness with yourself and others. Sometimes resulting in depression and anxiety or extreme tiredness or feeling unbalanced or demotivated.
Any of these issues can affect your day to day ability to live the life you want. We can explore these issues and help raise your understanding of what has happened and support your ability to move forward with improved emotional well being and resilience.
Practically, we can also work on ways to manage stress and develop stronger emotional management strategies. This may help you to take charge of your life and begin to care for yourself physically and emotionally so that you are able to move forwards to a future that is more full of hope and meaning and one where you can engage with others and enjoy life. I believe that often the key to happiness is when you wake up wanting to embrace your future rather than trying to avoid your past.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications:
- Accredited Member of the BACP
- PGDip in Relationship and Family Therapy (Level 7) (Relate Institute - University of Hull)
- University Advanced Diploma in Couple Counselling (Level 6) (Relate Institute – University of Hull)
- MHFA (Mental Health First Aid) - MHFA Standard course - MIND
- Success with People with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Concept Training
- Certificate in Counselling Skills (CPCAB)
- Certificates in Young People Counselling (Youth Access)
- Reaching out to Highly Defended Children - Centre for Chil Mental Health, Islington
- Out of Control Children and Teenagers - Centre for Child Mental Health, Islington
- Qualification as a Relate Counsellor (Relate Institute)
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Mindfulness CPD Training Course – Affordable Counselling Group ACG
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Enhanced DBS Certificate
I adhere to the BACP code of Ethics and as an Accredited member of the BACP my work is regularly supervised and I undertake continuous professional training and development. My work is fully insured and I comply with current data protection legislation and the security and confidentiality of client information is extremely important.
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.
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
Over 14 year's experience supporting children over the age of 11, teenagers, young adults and adults with Autism and ADHD.
Stand alone Support Sessions with interventions for Parents of Neurodiverse children.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£60.00 - £75.00
Concessions offered for
Additional information
Initially, I offer a free brief telephone consultation to help you to decide whether counselling is the right form of support for you or a family member. Please feel free to contact me via email at alisondaycounselling@gmail.com, or on telephone number 07738 545307 and we can discuss your reasons for considering counselling which will help us determine whether I am the best counsellor to support and work with you.
We can then arrange a convenient time for a 60 minute initial consultation which will enable us to discuss what you hope to gain from counselling and address any questions or concerns you may have.
Following this initial consultation, you can decide whether you wish to proceed with additional sessions and we can then arrange a regular appointment time for either short or long term work.
I offer flexible day time and evening appointments. Sessions will be for 60 minutes every week or fortnight (unless agreed otherwise ). I can offer face to face sessions or if you prefer we can do an online counselling session via Zoom. The fee for your session will be:
£60.00-£68.00 per session for individuals and children 11 to 18 years
£70.00-£75.00 per session for couples or families
*some concessions available for students.
When I work
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Further information
I work in an easily accessible private practice in the Bearsted and Maidstone area with a large parking space on the drive, which enables me to be flexible about appointments and provide a comfortable air conditioned space for clients which is accessed via a side gate and which is in a separate building to my house.
