Bill Swindlehurst - Registered Member MBACP (Accred)

Training, qualifications & experience

My counselling training started in 2004 and I gained my Diploma in Counselling in 2009.  I  then gained my Diploma in Counselling Children and Young People in 2012 and then completed training in Couples Counselling. I gained my BACP accreditation in 2013.  Prior to becoming a counsellor I worked with families as a Family Mediator.  The situations I encountered in mediation encouraged me to train as a counsellor.  I have worked with individuals for some years but my work with families has led me to build on my individual counselling and to expand my counselling work by training in Couples Counselling and counselling Children and Young People - whilst trying to maintain my Person Centred way of working and being.  I now work as a counsellor with individuals, couples and children and young people. 

I have worked as a Person Centred Counsellor since 2008 with people that have had depression, relationship difficulties, anxiety, anger issues, expressed suicidal thoughts, experienced bereavement or loss, been victims of abuse, experienced difficulties around their sexuality, and various other issues in their lives that have caused them to seek help.  After gaining my Diploma I went on to work for a Post Qualifying Diploma in Counselling Children and Adolescents, then later trained in Couples Counselling. I have also completed training in Emotional Freedom Techniques.

Over time, contact with people from the LGBT community and the touching experiences I gained from a transgender training event have heightened my awareness of the difficulties faced by LGBT people, despite societal changes. As a counsellor who will work with gender and sexually diverse clients from an affirmative standpoint, I am registered with Pink Therapy.

I was a Registered Family Mediator with Relationships Scotland where I worked extensively with family issues.  I helped couples who were having difficulties making arrangements about contact with their children, due to separation and divorce.  I also worked with families who were having disputes that needed resolving.