This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Hi, I’m Bernadette. I am an Accredited Member of the BACP with 8 years of experience working as a counsellor for an NHS IAPT service, mainly working with clients suffering from depression and anxiety. I previously worked with Cruse Bereavement Service, during which time I trained to therapeutically work with adults and children who have experienced loss and grief. I also gained invaluable experience working with the YMCA counselling teenagers and young people.
Over the previous 30 years, I practised as a registered nurse, school nurse and registered midwife before training as a counsellor. From the start of my professional career, I always aspired to care for and help people.
Through my nursing and midwifery career, I realised I had a natural aptitude for counselling, and I felt a strong desire to further develop these interpersonal skills and embarked on my professional counselling journey in my early forties. I believe that my nursing and midwifery background consolidated my desire to pursue a career in counselling. Lastly, I believe that the combination of my life experience, maturity, wisdom, resilience and courage that I have acquired over the last five decades inspires a well-rounded and holistic approach to my clients.
While my core model working as a counsellor is Person-Centred, I work within an integrative approach whereby I tailor my wealth of skills around the client and their specific needs and current difficulties.
I am a qualified CfD Practitioner (BACP accredited in Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression) and this approach is very effective with clients experiencing depression. The main principles include tapping into people’s innate ability to know what is important to them, and their own best directions in life that will lead them towards greater wellbeing and a more fulfilling existence.
During our time working together, I will facilitate focus on the exploration of your emotions, thereby supporting you to become more in tune with your true self.
I will follow your lead in an inviting and unforced manner, promoting your freedom to choose what you would like to bring without assuming the role of the expert and directing the session. I will respond in a way which reassures that you are being heard and understood. I will convey unconditional acceptance of what you bring to each session without judgement or criticism.
I will help you to focus your attention inwards to internal sensations, enabling you to express emotions you may not have been able to identify or express before, providing a safe space to do this.
I will help you get to the core of your difficulties while benefitting from a good therapeutic relationship.
I offer private counselling from my home, a quaint and comfortable 400-year-old cottage, right in the centre of Wells, Somerset. I also offer Skype and telephone counselling to suit individual needs and preferences.
I hold an up-to-date DBS and indemnity insurance.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills(CPCAP)
- Level 3 in Counselling Studies (CPCAP)
- Diploma In Therapeutic Counselling (CPCAP, Accredited by BACP)
- Awareness in Bereavement Care- a Foundation Course- Cruse
- Working with young Children and Young People Training course (Cruse)
- Sudden and Traumatic Death Module (Cruse)
- BACP Accredited Course - Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD)
Theories studied:
- Person Centred Approach
- Psychodynamic
- Object Relations
- Transactional Analysis
- Gestalt
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Solution Focus Therapy
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£50.00 - £55.00
Additional information
Concession for senior citizens over 65, also for students at College or University.
