Essere therapies
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About us
Hello and welcome to Essere.
Sometimes, life can feel a bit too challenging, and if you are feeling that then we're pleased you've found us.
Helen and Catherine created Essere in 2017; they are both grateful to have now gathered together a team of like-minded, experienced therapists, who can provide trauma informed practice, into the Essere team.
Here at Essere, we know about the experience of becoming a family (and staying one!). So we always provide compassionate relationships for you, your child, teen, or whole family as needed.
We are here so that you don't have to hold everything by yourselves.
We offer face to face and online therapy, or a hybrid approach as required. Many clients find this flexible, needs based, approach beneficial and accessible.
We also offer single sessions for if you just need time to think through a specific issue but you don't want longer term support. Perhaps you need to talk about school refusal, menopause, bereavement, or maybe you just need to talk about something that's happening with someone outside your network of friends and family.
We work with schools and other educational settings too.
We are here to help life feel easier.
Training, qualifications & experience
Catherine
Catherine is a Co-founder of Essere. She always wanted to work with children and always has done, first as a Primary School teacher and now as a Play Therapist.
When teaching, Catherine always felt acutely aware of the children in her classes who didn't seem able to access their capacity to learn and thrive. Some of them had had difficult life experiences that were affecting the way they felt about themselves and the world around them but there was no recognition of this within the schools where Catherine worked at the time. Catherine could see that these children needed a specific kind of support and help before they were going to be able to fully focus on fulfilling their potential, recognising this situation led Catherine to return to university to train as a Play Therapist.
Since gaining her Master’s degree in Play Therapy, Catherine has worked with children and families experiencing a range of issues and very differing histories. Some have experienced multiple traumas and losses in their lives and are experiencing a range of difficulties when they begin therapy. Other's are referred because they are experiencing specific issues, such as separation anxiety or low self-esteem. Catherine has worked with children and their birth families and those in foster care and those who have been adopted.
Catherine is also privileged to be foster mum to someone who is now an exceptional young woman (she has allowed Catherine to write this bit). The ongoing experience of becoming a family (and staying one!), of the roller-coaster that is parenting, of needing to learn many new things (therapeutic parenting, PACE, Dan Hughes, Sarah Naish being some of these) and also how to advocate for someone who has the right to a positive experience of the world but has not always experienced this, has taught Catherine enough to write a book! (Though, thankfully, others have already done this, so she doesn’t plan to.) She brings her knowledge and understanding, gained through lived experience, to her work with children, teens and families in many ways that she hopes enable them to feel deeply understood, warmly accepted, well supported and far less alone.
Helen
Helen is also a Co-founder of Essere. She loves being with people.
Helen is aware that there has been a shift in recent years, and we now have a much clearer and more accepting understanding of how therapy can help with unresolved experiences.
Helen is passionate about being with others in a therapeutic relationship, especially after experiencing difficulties after the birth of her child. She knows the benefits of having a deeply empathetic, trusting relationship and this was her drive to provide this for others.
Helen has worked with children, teens and their families for many years, maybe now, a few too many to count...
But she isn't stopping yet, she wants to keep on providing an empathetic, safe space for others, that's why Essere keeps on growing, she believes when the conditions are right, something special happens.
Helen is an Integrative Therapist and Clinical Supervisor, and along with Catherine they are also Co-founders of Open Space a Community Interest Company.
Open Space has providing opportunities for people from displaced communities to access therapy, community groups have also been provided for many.
Both Catherine and Helen are always thinking of how they can bring people together, so watch this space...
Member organisations *
school 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.
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.
Areas of counselling we deal with
Other areas of counselling we deal with
Family Therapy
Parent and child dyad work
Filial Therapy
Therapies offered
Fees
£60.00 per session
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
These fees are for private referrals.
Further information
Essere is an Italian word meaning ‘To be’. We wanted to choose a name that conveyed the inclusiveness of the service we want to offer.
We have always loved being around people and so the idea of Essere was created during one of many conversations in a local community coffee shop. Essere's ethos comes from a deep desire in both Catherine and Helen to feel connected to others and to provide deeply felt support to others.
So, it's not surprising that Essere has grown from the two of us and our idea into a team of passionate, like-minded people.
We know that when people come together in a safe and supportive environment, it supports movement towards those present finding out more about their purpose, whatever that might be. For some, it's might be a more peaceful and positive state of being, for others it might be finding a new way of viewing our often confusing world.
