This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
About me
Hello, and welcome.
My name is Carola. Here is some information about me, my counselling experience and therapy practice.
My approach: When I first meet a client, I seek to understand at a deep level, exactly what is wanted and needed. I listen with attention and empathy, working collaboratively with you in a way and at a pace that I believe will be most helpful.
My way of working is to tailor our work to your specific concerns and to build a trusting relationship between us. I give time and attention to your present experience, your inner life, your context, how the past may be influencing the present or affecting your personal relationships.
For some of us it is important to acknowledge our experience of past trauma and develop our capacity to make changes in the present.
Others of us may need to acknowledge our own resourcefulness, and to increase our ability to ‘be on our own side’.
Some may be living in difficult or painful situations right now, or feeling at risk.
Some of us may feel restricted by anxiety or depression, and wish to understand aspects of the self more deeply and find greater meaning in our lives.
Others may be experiencing a time of sorrow, loss or grief.
Others may be needing to come to terms with aging, a change of role, or honouring our true selves in the second half of life.
All of these are themes that I work with. Therapy can help to develop our resilience, insight, and our capacity for present-moment attention. It can increase our abilities to care for ourselves, to make sense of our lives, and to nurture our relationships with those who are important to us.
Accessing different or unrecognised parts of ourselves can help develop our sense of wellbeing and wholeness. Energy-work, reverie, creativity and metaphor are helpful tools in bringing us to a deeper understanding of our rich inner lives. And increasing our awareness of embodied experience, is particularly helpful in keeping us connected with ourselves, and the world.
Training and Experience: Before setting up my own practice in Calderdale several years ago, I worked in the public sector for 10 years counselling people who found themselves in a time of crisis.
My training and approach is primarily Integrative. That means instead of working from a single perspective, I do my best to tailor and integrate the approaches I have experience of, to your specific needs. I have worked with a wide range of clients over the years and my own therapy has been both Psychodynamic and Integrative, and my supervisors have been from integrative, psychoanalytic and TA backgrounds.
I am currently doing a 12 month clinical training course in Energy Psychotherapy. Over the years I have also had training in and experience of several other theoretical approaches including the Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy, embodied Trauma work, Counselling outdoors, and the Crisis model. Increasingly these days, I am drawn to approaches which attend to the body, and to spirit as well as to the mind.
If you decide to contact me about the possibility of working together, I will suggest an initial appointment where we can meet if this is possible and comfortable for you. (If not, a zoom meeting can be arranged). This appointment will be a chance for you to discover whether working with me feels right for you, and is what you want. It will also give me a chance to check that the way I work could be helpful to you and is appropriate for your needs.
What happens at the initial appointment? I will greet you at the door, and we will go together to the therapy room. Once we are settled I will ask you in your own time and in your own words to tell me what has brought you to seek counselling.
I may ask you some questions – for example about your hopes and expectations of counselling, or any previous periods of difficulty you may have experienced. I may ask you to tell me a little about your childhood, significant events or important relationships. But mostly I will be listening, and supporting you to describe in your own words, what might be troubling or preoccupying you.
You may also have questions to ask me about how I work or the therapeutic process, and I will do my best to answer these as clearly as possible.
Towards the end of the initial session, we will come to an agreement about whether we are going to continue working together, and whether you hope to work indoors or outdoors. If you do wish to go on to work with me, we will arrange when we will meet to begin our regular and agreed period of counselling.
Where I work:
I work at the Wharf Practice is in Sowerby Bridge.
The Wharf Practice is located at The Wharf, Sowerby Bridge. This area is a small, thriving complex that includes other therapeutic practices, NGO's, small businesses, a couple of cafes, and a pub.
The practice is located in an attractive old canal-side building. The room overlooks the canal, and is airy, light and comfortable. It has a large window and a warm and welcoming atmosphere. There is a yoga studio next door, and toilets and a washroom just down the corridor.
The practice room is on the first floor, so I am afraid it is not currently wheelchair accessible. However, if access to the venue is difficult or impossible for a client, I'd be happy to discuss the possibility of making more suitable arrangements.
As the building is shared by various organisations, there is a buzzer system at the front door to say you've arrived, and a green button on the wall beside the front door to let yourself out.
The Wharf Practice is close to a bus stop and about 10 minutes walk from the train station. There is generally parking nearby. Often there will be a couple of spaces in the carpark opposite our building and the Moorings Pub, or down by the canal. Otherwise there are parking lots elsewhere close by.
Other options: I also work on zoom where necessary or required.
Training, qualifications & experience
Relevant Qualifications:
- Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Counselling (Manchester University)
- Counselling Skills and Group Work Certificate Course (WPF Counselling North)
- Certificate in Supervision
- Diploma in Homeopathic Medicine (Sheffield School of Homeopathic Medicine)
- MA in Creative Writing (Manchester Metropolitan University)
I am currently doing a 12 month clinical course in Energy Psychotherapy.
I participate in regular continuing professional development courses. These have included both short courses, and longer courses including
- Taking Therapy outside - Understanding Therapeutic Practice in Outdoor Natural Spaces
- Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy;
- Personality Development - A Psychoanalytic Approach
- Complex Trauma Phase 1 and 2
- Working with Nightmares
- Attachment Theory – Bowlby to Current Theory and Practice
- Integrated Mindfulness
- Certificate in Supervision
- Dreamwork
- Psychotherapy and the Natural World;
- Compassion Focussed Therapy.
Other CPD courses I have done in the past are:
- Introduction to Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy
- Workshops in Culture and Counselling
- Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy training
- Attachment, Brain Function and Practice
- Jungian Approaches to Mind, Body and Imagination
- Working with Dreams
- Self Harm Training
- Skills for working with Personality Disorders
- Safeguarding Adults training
- Neuroscience Research Reading Group 2009-2011
Various regular in-house CPD training days, including Suicide Prevention, Working with Loss and Bereavement, Working with Interpreters, Deaf Awareness Training.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
I work with the person I meet in the therapy room, and with whatever themes they want to bring. If I believe a particular specialism is required, or something is presented which is beyond my knowledge, or ability to work with, I am open about this and suggest referring on.
Fees
£53.00 - £60.00
Additional information
I charge £25 for an initial appointment, and for subsequent counselling sessions between £53 and £60 per counselling session, according to what is sustainable for the client.
When I work
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I also work with clients who live at a distance or who aren’t able to access face to face appointments, on Zoom.