Charley Venables-Bland, BACP Accredited Counsellor and Psychotherapist
About me
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.
Training, qualifications & experience
My training at the well-renowned Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute (SPTI) in Nottingham led me to gain BSc (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy, qualifying in 2012. This training over three years was intensive, rigorous and comprehensive and it went beyond most shorter counselling courses in terms of preparing me to support my clients fully. Having been on my own personal therapeutic journey, I know and understand what it can feel like to seek therapy and to open up to another person.
I have experience working in private practice, in several charities and organisations across the Leicestershire area and with clients referred through workplace Employee Assistance Programmes.
In private practice I have experience of working both on a long term, open-ended basis and with short term and focused work.
I am also an Accredited and Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Continuing professional development is key to ensure that I am personally and professionally developing and some of the topics I have covered since my training are as follows:
- Principles of relationally focused work
- Ethically minded practice
- Disability awareness
- Working with issues surrounding rape and sexual abuse
- Mindfulness
- Attunement
- Dissociation and the effects of trauma
- Body positivity, body acceptance, body image
- Working with couples and relationships
- Working with children and young people
I am currently engaged in a 4 year programme of deeper learning around Integrative and Relationally Focused psychotherapy which I hope to lead to accreditation with the International Integrative Psychotherapy Association (IIPA)
I also attend regular clinical supervision to ensure that I practising ethically and in the interests of my clients.
I am also currently engaged in further study to become a supervisor.
Member organisations
Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
BACP is one of the UK’s largest professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy. Therapists registered with the Association fall into a number of different membership categories such as Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP and Registered Member MBACP (Accred), each standing for different levels of training and experience. MBACP (Accred) and MBACP (Snr Accred) members have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by the Association.
Registered members can be found on the BACP Register, which was the first register to achieve Accredited Voluntary Register status issued by the Professional Standards Authority. Individual Members will have completed an appropriate counselling and/or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but will not appear on the BACP Register until they've progressed to Registered Member MBACP status.
All members are bound by a Code of Ethics & Practice and a Complaints Procedure. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership
Accredited Register Scheme
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
Parenting
Low mood
Feelings of sadness
Feelings of worthlessness
Body image
Disordered eating
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
Counselling and Psychotherapy
For individual work, the initial assessment session will be 1 hour and I charge £50 for this appointment.
If you decide that you would like to work with me individually, all subsequent sessions are 50 minutes. The fee for each of these is £50.
I sometimes am able to offer a limited number of lower cost counselling places at between £35-£50 per 50 minute session. As these are limited, I ask that you suggest the fee that most closely matches your individual circumstances.
For couples or relationship counselling, I charge £65 per 60 minute session.
Supervision
For supervision, I charge £35 per hour.
I may be able offer a discount to counselling students - please contact me to discuss this further.
Concessions offered for
Further information
Supervision
I am currently undertaking a supervision diploma training and am able to offer supervision to counsellors and psychotherapists at a low cost. If you would like to work with me to within a supervisory relationship, please do get in touch to discuss further.
