Ellen Friend

About me

I work with people that have experienced trauma so that they can feel safe in the present and look to the future with openness.

I help women with low-self esteem so that they can recognise their full potential and live a full life. Being a millennial woman myself, I can offer true understanding of what it means to be of this generation, now.

People who are feeling stuck work with me so that they can explore what being stuck means and move forwards with meaning.

My core training is integrative, which means that I draw from multiple theories and frameworks to offer a broad spectrum of support to the people I work with.

I always work with kindness and compassion; Carl Rogers says "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change", and I have been privileged enough to witness this change with many people, as well as in my own life.

I believe that inclusivity is essential to growth, and so I aim to provide a space for my clients that acknowledges gender, race, sexuality, ability, background, culture and religion and the different privileges or disadvantages that this affords. Within my practice, and using the privilege that I have, I commit to ongoing training and reading on these topics so that I can offer what I hope is a sense of safety for the people I work with that do not benefit from the same kinds of privileges that I do.

Covid-19 update: I am offering online or telephone sessions as well as risk-assessed face-to-face sessions

Training, qualifications & experience

I completed an FdA Integrative Counselling in 2017, graduating from UEA and University of Essex.

Since completing my formal training, I have been practicing as a counsellor both privately and within organisational settings. Within these agencies, the work has been focused on supporting adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (male and female, 1:1 and in groups), and people with substance addictions (both in a residential rehabilitation centre and in a drop-in centre).

Some recent training that I have undertaken includes:

Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems (Frank Anderson, M.D)
Affect regulation from theory to practice (Daniel Hill)
Intensive Training in the Treatment of Dissociative Disorders (Kathy Steele)
Trauma Summit (Bessel Van Der Kolk, Gabor Mate, Janina Fisher, Richard Schwartz)
Controlling and Coercive Relationships
Mindfulness
Co-dependent relationships
PTSD
Suicide intervention
Working with addiction: underlying causes
Trauma, the brain and recovery
Breaking the Trauma Bond
Developmental Themes in Children and Young People