About me
I have a particular (but not exclusive) heart to support people with their experience of adoption - as adopters or adoptees. This reflects many years of experience as a social worker specialising in adoption, together with my counselling qualifications and experience.
I offer a calm and empathic approach to exploring what matters to you at this time.
My counselling service is called 'Sustained Counselling'.
Sustained Counselling – what’s behind the name?
We all want strong and enduring relationships with those we love. But these relationships can be fragile and difficult.
Counselling can help strengthen, renew and sustain these relationships.
Our relationship with ourselves can also be full of complexity and contradiction.
Counselling has the potential to sustain you through the challenges of life and in the everyday.
Together we can explore what lies beneath your feelings, behaviours, attitudes and reactions. From this can come a renewed ability to face life with confidence.
Who am I?
I am a qualified and registered counsellor with BACP.
With over 14 years working in the area of adoption as a social worker, I have a depth of experience in this field - understanding it from various standpoints. This knowledge and understanding gives me a unique appreciation of the challenges for those affected by adoption.
What kind of counsellor am I?
I am a qualified integrative counsellor – meaning that I tailor my work with you according to your needs, drawing on a range of counselling techniques, including:
- Psychodynamic counselling
- Person Centred counselling
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Existential therapy
Training, qualifications & experience
What qualifications and experience do I have?
Qualifications:
- BA (Hons) in Business and Management Studies
- Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work
- Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection
- Diploma in Therapeutic Lifestory Work
- Diploma in Integrative Counselling
Experience:
Having been a qualified social worker for over 25 years, I have extensive experience of managing complex emotional issues. Within that role, I have met people where they are at emotionally. I have developed an ability to hold people emotionally at times of crisis and to calmly support them moving forward. I now use these skills within a counselling setting.
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
Fees
£60.00 per session
Additional information
What are my fees and how long is a session?
I offer a free 15 minute phone/online consultation, to establish whether we are the right fit for each other.
My fees for in-person counselling sessions are £60 per session. In-person counselling sessions will take place at Forth physio, South Queensferry.
My fees for counselling sessions online are also £60 per session.
All sessions last 50 minutes.
My fee for a one-off single session counselling is £85. A single session counselling session lasts 90 minutes and includes a follow up phone call 3-4 weeks later.
Further information
I offer counselling online or in person.
The sessions will take place weekly and will be reviewed every 6 weeks to ensure that the process is moving at your pace and to check in on progress.
Each session lasts 50 minutes.
Single session counselling can be offered online and would last 1.5 hours. Not every situation will be suitable for single session counselling. Clients are given a questionnaire before we would meet. This helps to identify and agree on a specific, manageable goal to address.
We then work together to identify and use your existing strengths to address the problem. The session would conclude with a clear, actionable, and practical plan. A follow up phone call then takes place 3-4 weeks later to check in on progress.
