About me
My name is David Seaman, I have Eleven years experience in counselling clients, and have been in private practice since 2020. Prior to working privately I worked at Iceni Ipswich as a volunteer counsellor, where I worked with parents who’s family had been negatively affected by addiction, I also worked as a key worker at Focus 12 rehab Bury St Edmunds, where my role would include facilitating group work and creative therapy workshops.
Earliest experiences of relationships influence how one exists in adult relationships, what deficits existed in one’s story? What was not experienced? What is it that may have been helpful towards an individual’s development? This isn’t about getting stuck in the past and dwelling on that which cannot be changed, you made it to adult life somehow, maybe there are parts of the story you wish you could go back in time to change, this option is not available, the option you do have is to try and work through that which feels unresolved to you. This is about reframing elements of the story.
I have helped individuals work on their relationship with anxiety, it warns of danger, but when ignored it grows louder? Listening to the warning means potentially understanding the reason it exists. So often individuals are diagnosed in a way that makes them feel they are fundamentally unwell and defined by this label, this does not acknowledge the root of these triggers that lead to these behaviours, that which has been swept aside as inconvenient can now to be embraced and explored in counselling. There may be questions related to the past that never can be fully answered, situations that can never be fully understood, I encourage clients to sit with the uncomfortable feelings surrounding this, decreasing the power those feelings have over people living their lives as they wish to.
I have reached twelve years sobriety and am a firm believer that change can happen, I have experienced this for myself, and I have seen many individuals change through the therapeutic process.
I do not believe people are born addicts or criminals or any label society has thrown their way. Something has happened along the way, therapy is a chance to tell your unique story, to try to understand why life has turned out like this, therapy is your opportunity to change.
I have helped individuals develop a better relationship with themselves, the parts of themselves, as we discover what those parts need, being kind to oneself can be the biggest challenge of all, but therapy is where this begins.
Experience:
- Private practice in Ipswich since 2020.
- Counsellor at Iceni in Ipswich for four and a half years.
- Keyworker/Creative therapist at Focus 12 Rehab for two and a half years.
- I'm a registered member of the BACP and follow their ethical guidelines.
- Sober since 2013.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Gabor Maté on Treating Trauma, Stress, and Addictions, Online course, CPD Certificate PESI
- Bessel Van Der Kolk When Psychedelics Hurt: Psychedelic Unpleasant Experiences as a Pathway to Healing Certificate PESI
- Trauma-Informed Stabilisation Treatment: Working with Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, Compulsive Self-Harm, and Suicidality CPD Certificate PESI
- Janina Fisher Complete Trauma Immersion CPD Certificate PESI
- Transgenerational and Inherited Trauma CPD Certificate PESI
- Bessel Van Der Kolk Body Keeps the Score CPD Certificate PESI
- Working with the changing face of mental
health and cognition within the
workplace setting BACP CPD Certificate - British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists Certificate of proficiency
- Integrative counselling and psychotherapy at University Campus Suffolk
- MBACP
- Integrative counselling and psychotherapy, accredited by Middlesex University.
- Have undergone training in remote counselling for telephone and online work.
- I believe in regular continuing personal development (CPD), and that learning and personal development is essential for practising counsellors.
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
Photos & videos
Fees
£50.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
£50 = 50 minutes
£70 = 90 minutes
When I work
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My counselling room is 24/7, so I am able to flexible with hours.
Further information
Basepoint business centre has a reception area where there is coffee, vending machines and a comfortable seating area, this can be utilized by clients, if required, before/after face to face counselling sessions. The building has free parking (up to 60 minutes) and is just off the A14, it is also not in the town centre which makes the location more discreet.
I have my own counselling room which is available 24hrs a day so am often able to be flexible with hours when required.
