About me
Hi. My name is Brian and I'm a qualified integrative counsellor. That simply means I am trained to use a number of counselling approaches. I work with adults, and children and young people aged eleven and over.
Prior to undertaking my professional training, I worked for the SHSCT within adult day care services with people with cognitive and physical disabilities.
Please read on to see how I believe counselling can help if either you yourself or someone you care about is currently struggling with what appear to be insurmountable problems.
Do you ever ask yourself, 'What's wrong with me, why am I feeling like this?', or does your head ever feel like its going to explode, not because you have a headache but because of intrusive thoughts that keep going round and round inside your head and just won't stop?
Perhaps you fear certain situations, places or people and avoid these altogether or only dare to face them with strong support from partners, family or close friends?
If you can identify with any of these or something similar, I can tell you that you are not on your own and I work with many people who readily identify with such scenarios.
We are all conditioned throughout our lifetime, buffeted by life experiences current and past. Many of these are painful and can cause any one of us to face challenges to our mental health. Some examples might be relationship splits or conflicts, bereavement, loss of employment, living with a disability - ourselves / our family, experiencing trauma in our life such as assault or abuse, surviving a near death experience. There are numerous others.
If our problems become overwhelming, we can begin to develop anxiety, stress, depression, low self-esteem, uncontrolled anger and because these are all interlinked, it's not uncommon to be impacted by more than one, for example feeling depressed while also feeling very anxious most or all of the time.
As a result, we may begin to adopt damaging coping strategies, risking developing addiction by drinking heavily or taking drugs or engaging in self-harming behaviours, risking becoming addicted to the opioids or chemicals that our body produces when we injure ourselves, or we may begin to use safety behaviours, such as the one we have already mentioned, avoiding the people, places and things that make us feel uncomfortable or frightened but which in reality will only reduce our anxiety in the short term.
Many of us try hard to battle our problems alone and we may even try to trivialise them or block them out, but attempting to manage trauma or severe psychological distress on our own can be really difficult.
Some of what you've just read may help you to begin to understand why you are feeling the way you do and how you have now come to find yourself reading about counselling.
So let's take a look at some of the kinds of issues that I think I can help you with:
- Stress/Anxiety/Depression/Low self-esteem/Anger or rage, (remember, you can have more than one at the same time).
- Complex trauma including childhood sexual abuse / physical abuse including domestic abuse / coercive control / psychological abuse.
- Self-harm including cutting / burning / addictions / risk behaviours / eating disorders / self-neglect.
- Neurodiversity - Autism / ADHD / Learning disability / OCD / Tourette's syndrome / Epilepsy.
- Bullying at school /at work / in relationships.
- Grief, bereavement and loss including impending bereavement.
- Acceptance of a terminal illness diagnosis - your's / a loved one's.
- Anger management.
- Relationship problems including - family relationships / partner / peers.
- Sexual identity issues including gay / bi / trans.
- Suicidal thoughts, (ideation).
- Developing self awareness / assertiveness skills / boundaries / self care.
- Having worked for many years within social services, I have built up extensive experience working with neuro-diversity: learning disability / autism / ADHD / OCD / brain injury / as well as people with a physical disability.
If you decide to try counselling and select me as your counsellor, by working as a team, in a safe and confidential space that is free from judgment, we will work together to reduce excessive stress, anxiety or depression. When your counselling ends, you will also leave taking with you the skills, strategies and knowledge, a tool box of sorts, that will help you to look after your mental health long into the future.
One word of caution though; counselling unfortunately is not an instant fix, it will take time and like anything in life, you will get out of it what you put in, so you will need to engage with your counsellor, share openly, listen carefully, and then work hard to make necessary changes outside your counselling room. If you feel you can do your part, then I will look forward to hearing from you and working with you to do my part, and together we will affect positive change that will allow you to overcome whatever current problems you are facing and to move on positively with your life.
Finally, it may be of some interest to know that I have written a number of counselling articles that you can access by scrolling further down my profile page. These look at issues such as;
- The impact of severe trauma in our lives and how traumatic memories become stuck in our unconscious mind creating frightening flashbacks and terrifying nightmares.
- Anxiety, what is this, what causes it, how do I recognize it, and what can I do to manage it?
- School life and problems young people may experience such as bullying.
- Coping with bereavement and loss in our lives.
- How do other cultures, likely very different to our own, cope with their grief.
- Grounding and mindfulness: what is it and how can it help?
I wish you well and if you have any questions, please get in touch using the phone number below. Leave a short message if I'm unable to answer, or you can send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Counselling Tip: Take care of yourself today and do something special; just for you!
Thank you for checking out my counselling profile.
Kind Regards -
Brian Watters - Integrative Counsellor.
BPW Counselling: Ph - 077 688 75 682
(Phone line monitored - Mon - Fri - 9:00.am - 6:00.pm).
Training, qualifications & experience
University of Ulster - FOUNDATION DEGREE IN SCIENCE - Integrative Counselling Practice. (Accredited by BACP).
Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body - Level 5 Diploma in Counselling Children and Young People (CYP - L5).
National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society - Certificate in Complex Trauma and Childhood Sexual Abuse.
University of Ulster - Level 4 Certificate in Counselling Skills
Cruse Bereavement Support - Foundation Training..
Cruse Bereavement Support - Help-line Foundation Training.
ASIST trained, (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training).
I have previously worked for CRUSE Bereavement Suport as a bereavement support volenteer, (face-to-face support), and as a helpline volenteer working on the CRUSE national help-line.
As a qualified integrative counsellor, I use a number of counselling theories to help my clients, namely CBT, (cognitive behavioural therapy), person-centred, and psychodynamic counselling. I am qualified to provide counselling to adults and CYP, (Children & young people aged 11 and over).
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
Photos & videos
Fees
£45.00 - £50.00
Concessions offered for
Additional information
Counselling appointments - Poyntzpass counselling office - £50 per session
Students/retired/people seeking employment - £45 per session.
Flexible appointments can be arranged on request, e.g., evening / weekend, (Saturday only).
When I work
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Further information
My counselling office in Poyntzpass is on the ground floor but there are three steps to navigate from street level. If you are disabled, I can offer telephone or online counselling options, or if you live within a ten-mile radius, I can travel to your home address if you have a private area where counselling can take place. Please phone my office number; 077 688 75 682, if this is something that you might be interested in.
Finally, my counselling office in Poyntzpass is situated in a private driveway, and you can enter and leave discreetly if is this is important to you, and parking is available.
Counselling sessions last approximately one hour.
