Angela Tomasso

Hi! I'm Angela!

If you've clicked on my page I'm guessing you or someone you care about has been having a pretty hard time and I'm so pleased you have found the courage to take this first step on the road to getting the support you need. Together we can explore your concerns and when you're ready find ways of moving out of where you find yourself. You will be able to make changes and feel better so taking the step to contact me is a strength not a weakness.

I'm a qualified, experienced counsellor & therapist based in Hereford for face to face sessions offering kind and respectful therapy or online wherever you are in the world. I offer a dedicated, confidential and non-judgmental service to men and women 18 years and over in tranquil and comfortable surroundings.

I am very experienced in helping with depression and anxiety, bereavement, sadness, sexual abuse, relationship problems, workplace bullying, relationship difficulties and domestic abuse & violence. A fuller list of problems I've helped with previously is below.

I’m a registered member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and adhere to the organisation’s strict ethics to provide a respectful, empathic and warm service which demonstrates my belief that every individual is deserving of positive regard without condition and without prejudice.

No matter your problems are I want you to know that you have the capcity and ability to heal and grow from life's hurts. Seeking someone trustworthy to confide in, who will help you heal from harm done to you or by you  and eventually, when you're ready, help you move forward and make changes is a strength not a weakness. It takes maturity and honesty to realise you need support, and grit and determination to listen to your feelings rather than ignore them.

I invite you to feel safe in a discreet and accepting space where you will be listened to and heard. I will reflect back with compassion and caring and help you to see patterns of relating you may have fallen into that may not be helpful to you and help you work out ways forward that feel right to you.

We will meet in person preferably, or online via video calling if geography dictates. Online work has several advantages and disadvantages to face to face. But has still shown to be effective and allows you to be with me in the comfort of your own home.

Most of us at some point or another are a bit like tender young trees in the storm getting buffeted with the winds of life - and almost all of us, no matter what age or from what walk of life, need support at one time or another to grow. Speaking with a trained counsellor who will listen and not judge can really help.

Painful emotions can be viewed as important messages from your body giving you the opportunity to free yourself from discomfort as you work through them. You can move towards changing what you can change, accepting what you can't, and having someone you can trust alongside you on your path to greater happiness and peace.

Therapy can help you grow strong roots of belonging which connect you securely to this world and people in it and help you to withstand the future storms of life.

The Therapy and My Beliefs

My approach is humanistic and integrative with a person-centred heart, which means:

That I believe you to be of great worth and doing your best as you currently see it. I also believe that all humans possess everything they need within themselves to heal and grow from their experiences. A principal responsibility of mine is to help you to connect to those resources.

Being Integrative means blending a variety of methods in my work to suit you as the unique individual that you are because no single approach to therapy can possibly fit everyone. I therefore tailor my therapy to fit you, not the other way around, using a cohesive mix of tools and techniques from different, well-researched approaches and integrate them into my work with you, for example I use strong elements of CBT to combat the debilitating effects of anxiety but I combine the work with person-centred compassion and patience.

Having a person-centred base with an integrative heart means that I am gentle, offering you the chance to bring to each session what you feel needs expression most, not always what I think we should cover. But I will guide and direct the work wherever and whenever I see it is necessary to do so, using my experience. I may make some suggestions and help you to arrive at decisions, but they will be your decisions, ones you feel comfortable with.

Where and When?

Appointments are available weekdays , from 8.30am-6.30pm. 

Weekly sessions last up to one hour and are conducted privately, either face to face in my very comfortable and tranquil therapy room or via easy to operate video calling (I'll show you how if you don't know).

An extra half-hour Guided Relaxation or Mindfulness can be incorporated into the beginning or end of the session to help reduce emotional hyper arousal and allow you to walk back into the outside world feeling strengthened and calmed, or energised depending on need. I allow plenty of time between clients to provide a very private service.

How many sessions will I need?

Some people feel they have gained what they need in just a few sessions, others will want to stay longer. We can go week by week or agree on a certain number of sessions, set goals and be focused, whichever feels right to you. You can begin and end therapy at any time, though it's best to have an ending session. You can return for more therapy at a later date no matter how much time has passed.

Wherever possible I endeavour to see new clients within 48 hours of first contact when required.

You can contact me via phone, text or email. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Please email me here, call me on: 07736573030 or drop me a text

Loneliness

Sessions cost:

£50. 00 per 50-60 min session

£60.00 per 90 minute session (one hour counselling, half hour Guided Relaxation or Mindfulness

My fee may be negotiated if you are having difficulties. Please talk to me.

* The first assessment lasts no more than an hour, this is an opportunity for us to meet and for you to decide if you feel comfortable with me and ask any questions you may have. We will discuss what you want from counselling and set some goals to keep us on track.

Please email me here or call me on: 07736573030

What can you expect from Therapy with me?

I have a 30-year background in voluntary mentoring and using counselling skills prior to becoming a counsellor and qualified as a counsellor in 2017 with a foundation degree in Integrative, Humanistic, Person-centred Counselling. Since then I have received a years continuous professional development in Transactional Analysis psychotherapy and have built up thousands of direct contact counselling hours with clients.

• Integrative Counselling
• Psychotherapeutic tools, guides and worksheets available for home
• Mindfulness
• Guided Relaxation
• Transactional Analysis
• CBT
• Strong elements of Gestalt therapy
• Person Centred counselling if required

I have been trained so as to be able to offer a more person-centred approach to counselling if you prefer a more reflective session led by you as the expert on yourself, working out your own answers to problems in the here and now. This is more suitable for the more confident client; those who are having difficulty not related to traumatic experience in childhood or early life where confidence and self esteem has been undermined.

Help with multiple issues

Many people are not exactly sure what parts of their life are the most difficult to bear. They often don't have anyone they can trust to open up to for fear of burdening them or driving them away. A therapist who is trained how to listen will give you the safe non-judgemental space you need to just talk and talk without fallout. Talking things through can help you sort out the jumble of emotions you and others can't seem to make sense of. Through listening carefully as clients talk and reflecting back what they hear in a person centred way, allowing the client to be in control, a therapist can help people sort out and establish for themselves exactly how they feel if they're not sure and give you the reassurance you are looking for; identifying that you are almost certainly having perfectly normal reactions to a particular set of difficult circumstances.

I will help you work out how you really feel by helping you express and name your emotions and attend to you as you get to the bottom of what you think about having them and what that means to you. I will reflect back to you my understanding of what you have said about your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and this will help you process your emotions and decide which problem you would like to work on first. Then, finally and in time, accept and come to terms with the reality of your experiences and finally move forward.

Help with a single issue

This involves a series of conversations offering a focused approach that concentrates on a particular issue you have already identified and are having in the present, using some of the tools described above.

For both of the above

We can work through straightforward means - talking, or through more imaginative means to make the sessions interesting and enjoyable - kinesthetics (actually doing something), linguistics (reading, writing, listening or speaking), naturalistic items (nature), visually or spatially (visual aids), logically (using patterns, numbers and equations) or artistically (painting, sketching, colouring, poems and stories) in creative ways.  Integrating tools and techniques from:

Transactional Analysis - personality and communication based therapy looking at your Inner Child's losses, omissions and needs and building happy and secure relationships effectively through your Adult 
Egan's Problem Management Approach - Solving problems that can be solved and getting to where you want to go using a tried and tested formula
Psychopharmacology - side effects and direct benefits caused by medications and how to get the same effect without medication
Psychosynthesis - connecting with an external resource such as spirituality or personal religion as an internal guide
Neuro-biology & physiology - how the brain, digestive, respiratory and threat response systems work and be influenced to support or detract from mental and emotional well-being
Compassionate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) - Changing how you think and behave to change how you feel; a gentler, counselling-led home-supported focussed method of CBT.

Research has shown Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to be effective as a brief intervention therapy or longer term therapy concentrating on a single problem at a time. It operates on the understanding that feelings are linked to the thoughts you keep and  the things you do, and that positive changes in just one of these areas will automatically positively affect how you are in the other two areas. Many GP surgeries employ CBT practitioners who are not trained counsellors so the lists, charts and written records necessary to examine lifestyle, behaviours, thoughts and feelings usually involved in CBT can come across very clinical and impersonal with a lot of homework. Overwhelming.  I like to do things differently. I incorporate what I've experienced to be the best elements of CBT into my work with warmth and compassion, a lot of the exercises necessary completed together in the session once a warm and trusting relationship has been established. Extra support can be given if you struggle to learn visually. I will take time to hear your story so I can understand what experiences and people have shaped your view of yourself and the world around you and informed your ability to respond to situations before we start working on paper. We will only move forward once you feel understood and accepted for who you are. Being accepted and valued just as you are with all of your flaws can give you the courage to change.

Once you have found your feet you will be given brief, guided tasks to do in the week and then we can go over the progress in the following session. All forms of CBT have shown to be very effective for depression and anxiety, among other problems.

Mindfulness

Modern life allows us to multi-task to the max. We often task ourselves to match what we perceive as the expectations of others and become miserable or overwhelmed simply with daily life. For instance we can download from the internet, answer the telephone, defrost the freezer, buy clothes, help a child, cook the dinner, listen to music and do the washing all at the same time. This is great for getting stuff done but not so great for the mind. We can become frazzled and burnt out with over complicated thoughts, making it difficult to receive the restorative sleep that the mind and body needs. There is little time for us to actually enjoy the gift of now, to really taste the food we are eating, smell the summer breeze or frosty air as it passes us by or hear the beauty in birdsong. Instead our minds go racing off, thinking about the next task we have to do.

Mindfulness is a simple practice that can be experienced in the session for quieting chattering minds, and bringing the mind and body peaceably together.

It is effective for taking stock of how you are feeling in your body, in different parts of the body and training the mind to stay with the task in hand. Effective for treating stress, anxiety, depression and chronic fatigue, it works by allowing the mind to take a rest, the body to take centre stage and then integrate together for a feeling of all-over well-being.

It can bring immediate relief for feelings of anxiety and be taught how to replicate at home. When practised regularly for as little as 15 minutes a day it trains the brain to experience the gift of now automatically and experience pure joy.

Guided Relaxation

Working on your body one part at a time I can help you regulate your breathing and enter a state of deep relaxation which is either restful or invigorating, your choice.

Depending on your need, you will be guided in your mind, with or without your eyes closed, via a personalised visualisation exercise to your favourite safe, happy or restful place. This ability to go anywhere at any time in your mind can really only be achieved when in a relaxed state. It can bring relief to those in intolerable situations or bring much needed rest without sleep if your days are so demanding that they do not allow for napping. I have also successfully used it to provide special remembering time for 'being with' loved ones who have died.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN CALL, EMAIL OR TEXT ME TO SET UP A FREE 15 MIN CONSULTATION