About me
A space to reflect
Life can be difficult, but always contains the possibility of growth. Exploring your experiences with another person can help you to connect with who you really are and create the conditions for change and self-acceptance.
Therapy is a chance to explore your feelings, values, life choices, and assumptions, how you see yourself and how you relate to others in a space that may not be available anywhere else.
If you are reading this, it's likely because you feel a need, All of us has learned to adapt to the world we found ourselves in. Many of our choices were right for us at a particular time. Sometimes the way we live works, sometimes we get stuck and the way we have lived our lives in the past no longer feels right. The world around us may have changed. We are confronted with choices and none of them feel right . If you have that feeling then therapy can be a good option. With the right support, each of us has the capacity to find answers to the things that challenge us and to develop the insight we need to make the right choices.
I draw on resources from different areas of Psychotherapy (see the Further Information section on this site). Above all, the work is a collaboration and there are regular check-ins to ensure that it remains relevant to your needs. I’d be happy to explain more about my approach in an introductory call. Please mail me at brendan.barnes@missingelephant.com and we can set up a call.
I offer face-to-face sessions in Central London (London Bridge/ Shoreditch areas) in a safe, supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment, as well as online counselling. Among other issues, I work with feelings of overwhelm, depression, anger, anxiety, stress, negative thoughts, low self-esteem and relationship issues. Counselling can be time-limited (specific number of sessions) or open-ended work, depending on your needs,
I hope that this information is useful and look forward to speaking to you
Training, qualifications & experience
BA (Psychology)
Diploma in Counselling (Minster Centre)
An integrative approach means that resources from different areas of psychotherapy can be drawn on. This can be helpful given the different backgrounds and preferred ways of working that people bring to counselling. Within the wide range of psychotherapies that exist, my own approach is based on the humanistic tradition, with a strong influence from existential and intersubjective theory. Core aspects of this approach are positive regard for the individual and the validity of their experience, together with supporting clients in identifying meaning and developing agency in their lives. Since qualification, I have continued a self-directed programme of continuing professional development
Member organisations
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
£70.00 per session
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
my standard rate is £70 per session but I am open to provide concessions where affordability is an issue
When I work
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I offer counselling in the London Bridge and Shoreditch areas of London on Monday and Tuesday afternoon and early evening. I also offer online counselling
Further information
Psychotherapeutic Counselling is a talking therapy, intended to help people bring about change and enhance wellbeing. It involves regular (usually weekly) sessions of 50 minutes and can be used to help people with a range of emotional and psychological problems of varying degrees of severity. These include depression, anger, anxiety, stress, negative thoughts, and low self-esteem.
I am bound by the BACP ethical framework and all work is confidential. The duration of therapy may be left open-ended or there may be a defined time limit. Both duration and goals are agreed between us at the outset as part of the contracting process.
I offer counselling online and face-to-face or a mixture of the two. We will discuss and agree the format of our sessions together. For face-to-face work, I am based in Central London, in the Farringdon/Barbican area. For online sessions, I use Zoom, with Facetime and Whatsapp as fallbacks in case of technical problems. In between sessions I can be contacted at brendan.barnes@missingelephant.com or on 07876214620 for text messages.
My approach is based on my integrative training, which means that I draw on resources from different schools of psychotherapy. This can be helpful given the different backgrounds and preferred ways of working that clients bring to counselling. Within the wide range of psychotherapies that exist, my own approach is based on the humanistic tradition, with a strong influence from existential and attachment theory. In my post-qualification training, I have focused on better understanding the impact of trauma.
· Humanistic approaches to counselling emphasise the quality of the relationship between counsellor and client and are underpinned by a belief in the human desire to grow and self-heal.
· Existentialism focuses on the meaning that we attach to our lives and our responsibility to make the right choices in order to live meaningful lives in the face of anxiety and uncertainty.
· Attachment theory sees our way of being in the world (sometimes called an internal working model”) as having its roots in experiences in early life.
In terms of background, I studied Psychology at University (1977-80). Following graduation, I worked in the private sector initially in London and, for the last 20 years, in Brussels. In 2016, following a reflection on the values that had guided my career to that point, I commenced training as an Integrative Counsellor with the Minster Centre. I have been working with clients since 2019. Recent work with clients has addressed anxiety, panic, trauma, anger, depression, and loss of meaning.
My previous career has been useful to me as a counsellor, not least in working with different cultures and values, but working as a counsellor entails a quite different way of looking at life. Perhaps the most important difference is to allow space for exploration of personal conflicts and to acknowledge respectfully the uncertainty that many of us confront every day. Life can be difficult, but always contains the possibility of growth and change.
