Gary Mooney
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am now offering counselling and supervision face to face. However, I can offer counselling over the phone or via video link. I will be available for counselling outdoors if clients would prefer to meet in person. Meeting outdoors would involve walking and talking in the Fortrose and the wider Ross -shire area. I can also offer wilderness therapy involving walking, canoeing or cycling. Wilderness therapy will be a minimum of a day.
I am a registered member of the BACP and have over twenty years experience providing personal development, counselling and psychotherapy in a variety of settings including specialist palliative care, education, private practice, youth services, youth offending and voluntary organisations.
I also have over 10 years experience as a supervisor and as a mentor to university trainee counsellors and counselling psychologists. I have a special interest in the area of death and dying and the impact loss has upon people. I also have a strong passion for working therapeutically outdoors, especially using human powered journeying in nature as a therapeutic way of helping people to overcome life's difficulties.
I believe that people have the potential and the capacity to overcome all that life throws at them. Counselling is like a journey into finding oneself and this can be scary. I try to support clients through the process of counselling by helping them to become more trusting in their own resources - their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and learn to trust these. To be open to their experiences and use them as a guide for what they need to grow and enhance their life.
I trained as a Person-Centred counsellor before training in Emotion Focused Therapy, CBT, and Mindfulness. I commit to offering a confidential and respectful counselling relationship.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have a BSc (Hons) in Outdoor Environmental education from Liverpool John Moores University. During my final year I studied adventure therapy and submitted a first class dissertation exploring the psychological effect of Scottish Hill walking. I worked for Youth Services in Manchester and then with young adult offenders in Lanarkshire using outdoor journeying as a vehicle for personal development and change.
My formal counselling took place at the University of Strathclyde 2003 gaining a PG Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling while working in local mental health associations and volunteering at St Andrews Hospice in Airdrie. Since 2004 I worked as a counsellor in St Andrews Hospice before becoming the Bereavement Support coordinator in 2008. I then trained in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and I was a part of the Strathclyde research group exploring Social Anxiety using EFT. I completed a MSc by research looking into the emotional effect of grief and my supervision training in 2011 also at the University of Strathclyde. I developed a small counselling team in St Andrews Hospice who provided counselling to the local community of Lanarkshire who were struggling with grief. I mentored trainee counsellors from the universities in the central belt. In 2014 I began to cut back my hospice work and developed a private practice. In 2016 I moved to Highland Scotland began to work therapeutically on-line alongside working two days in the central belt.
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
£40.00 per session
Additional information
Counselling £40.00 per hour session
Supervision £45.00 per hour session
Wilderness therapy £150 per day (note for canoeing all equipment is supplied)
When I work
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Currently available Monday to Friday, 09:30 - 18:00.
Supervision until 21:00 by arrangement.
Wilderness therapy - 10:00 - 17:00.
Further information
I am a fully qualified Mountain Leader, British Canoe Union level 3 coach and a Scottish Mountain Bike Leader. I am therefore able to provide therapeutic journeys in wilderness environments.
