Heather Ainscough
Every professional displayed on Counselling Directory has been independently verified by our team to ensure they have suitable credentials to practise.
This professional is currently not accepting new clients at this time.
This professional is currently not accepting new clients at this time.
About me
I have been working as a qualified psychotherapist for 20 years and have experience working with a wide range of emotional and mental health difficulties. I work in a relational and integrative way, although my natural attitude to my clients would best be described as Person Centred. I trust you to be the authority on your own journey and I am happy to work with you in assisting a deeper awareness of your habits, judgements and experiences. I have a long standing interest and practice in mindfulness meditation. I have also had additional training in trauma related practice, Embodied Relational Therapy, Polyvagal (nervous system) and in Somatic Experiencing.
I offer a block of 20 sessions in which to to help you make sense of difficulties or problems that you choose to bring to sessions. These may be immediate concerns, related to self-perception, to work, relationships, or social issues, or they may relate to historical events which you feel a need to re-examine, they may overlap. This short term way of working may not be suitable for complex mental health difficulties, but I would be happy to discuss suitabilty .
I currently work from a private space adjoining my home in Todmorden.
I work with a range of issues and these include;
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Relationship issues
- Bereavement/suicide
- Issues arising out of Abortion
- Family issues
- PTSD
- Body dysmorphic condition
- issues connected to adoption
Training, qualifications & experience
I worked as a Residential Social Worker (working with children) during the 1980's after which I completed my degree in Women Studies and Mental Health (1990).
Alongside my studies I trained and worked as a volunteer counselor at Care-line, at Women's Refuge and also worked with homeless young people, I then went on to complete my Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy in 2006.
I worked as a volunteer counselor at Sure start for 5 years and have been in private practice since 2006. I work from a quiet and tranquil room in my garden at home.
I have a long term interest and practice in zen meditation and mindfulness. Additional training includes Polyvagal nervous system awareness and Somatic Experiencing.
As a member of the BACP I work within their ethical framework and aim to provide a highly ethical practice. With this in mind I also have regular supervision and continue to participate in training to remain attentive to my practice.
I have experience of working with a wide range of issues including anxiety, childhood issues, bereavement, abortion, postnatal depression, sexual/emotional abuse, trauma, depression, eating disorders, domestic violence and relationship issues.
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.
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
Fees
£60.00 per session
Additional information
Further information
Therapy can be short or long term, this can be discussed at the outset and revisited.
It is generally the case that at 6 weeks it is possible to assess how to proceed, whether enough work has already been done, or to plan for work in the future. For that reason I like to have a review at 6 weeks. If we decide to continue after this point then we can work in a open ended way with regular reviews.
You can end the sessions whenever you feel ready, however if possible I would l prefer to set the closing session date together.
