Charley Venables-Bland, BACP Accredited Counsellor and Psychotherapist

Welcome...

You may be feeling overwhelmed, stuck, feeling depressed or anxious or perhaps you just know you don't feel okay or how you have done in the past.  Life may feel difficult, and your abilities to cope may be exhausted.  We find ourselves in a world that operates differently at the moment and that can affect our mental health and wellbeing.

How can I help?

I work to develop a place of safety within the therapeutic relationship because we can only feel safe to explore difficulties when we feel respected and held by someone else.  We can explore all of the issues that are around for you.  We can work in a brief and focused way with the aim of bringing about change in a few areas quickly. Or we can work longer term and explore more about what brought you to this point and look at how you can feel better.

My approach
I follow a Humanistic and Integrative model, with a focus on the relationship meaning that I follow your lead as a client and join you on your journey as you explore your world within the sessions. I believe that it is our experiences that have usually caused our current distress.  I draw on various theoretical models in order to assist you in understanding your thoughts and emotions more. I aim to build trust between us and develop the relationship between us so that you feel safe to explore your world alongside me.

Where appropriate I also use mindfulness and meditation, creative materials and body awareness.

What next?
After an initial chat you may choose to book an initial session with me where we would meet, online or via telephone, for an hour. This is a mutual assessment and allows me to determine if I have the right skills and experience to meet your needs and for you to decide if you would like to work with me. At the end of this session we can make a plan for where we would like to go next.

Specialist areas
I have a specialist interest in working with issues around body image and disordered eating.  I believe that health comes in all different body shapes and sizes.  I advocate that it's vitally important that for good mental health that we learn to respect and engage positively with our bodies.

I have an interest in working with people who have experienced trauma, and this can include lots of difficulties that we face in life.  Trauma can be described as an experience or a string of experiences that have exceeded our ability to cope and so we have had to adapt.

I also have a passion and experience with working with people who identify as having alternative or diverse genders and sexualities/sexual orientation, sometimes referred to as LGBTQIA+.  I work from the perspective that you are the expert in your life and that my role is to support you to live your life in the fullest and richest way possible for you.

I also offer relationship counselling and of course there are many different types of relationship.  This could include familial relationships, marriages, civil partnerships, couples, romantic relationships with more than two people, non-monogamous relationships, poly-amorous relationships.