Ian Woollams

What is Person Centred Experiential Counselling (PCEC) and how I work using this approach 

Imagine that your life experiences are like the geography of the world. Each session is like we're going to go for a walk together in any of these landscapes.  I will act like a guide, but I'm not going to be leading you, it's up to you where you wish to explore. My primary role is to keep you safe along your journeying, whilst you seek to find meanings around these parts of your experiences. You may want to stop and reflect or rest, go back or leap to another part of your experiences, then go back again, its up to you.

Person Centred Experiential Counselling (PCEC) is the advanced version of normal Person Centered (PC) counselling. It is the qualification required to work as a counsellor in the NHS. You have to be already experienced as a practicing counsellor for over x3 years and then do a further year or more training in PCEC. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have approved PCEC for the NHS to use for counselling, as it has a strong evidence base from around the world on its effectiveness. 

The approach is based on PC counselling where we look at your emotions and feelings, but has Emotion Focused therapy added to this core approach. This is not the 'tapping' therapy, but is the therapy devised by Elliott, Greenberg, Watson (and others) to deeply focus on felt sensations within your body. When you can reveal to yourself these physical sensations, this then allows feelings and emotions to emerge. These new awarenesses of unknown or not previously felt emotions and feelings can be incredibly liberating. This seemingly unusual method can be the much needed catalyst for change and growth in you.

We can't change our past, but we can change how we feel about things in the present. What we resist persists, what we can feel we can heal.

I may also use some psychological education to help you with understanding the incredibly complex ways our mind, bodies, thoughts and emotions and feelings can all interact. 

Core professional experiences

I have worked with male survivors of sexual abuse (3.5yrs) with trauma and complex trauma, counselling young people (1yr), x3 counselling charities which were all NHS compliant (5.5yrs), a specialist weight management service (1yr), x3 yrs private practice and x6yrs in the NHS directly through Turning Point.

I have helped with many of lifes seemingly endless myriad of difficulties and challenges. Gently increasing self awareness to help you navigate your own route through these times is my main approach. Becoming a mindfulness practitioner has deeply informed the ways I can help you. You are the expert in yourself, as no one else has lived exactly your life, so others can’t tell you whats really going on inside of you; all of your thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviours and urges. You may have temporarily become separated from your own voice, due to the current struggles in your life. Or conversely you may be being driven mad by your own voice, which you can't shut up. 

As an NHS counsellor I have dealt with many of life's difficulties and resulting sufferings. Anxiety and depression being outcomes and coping strategies to these many challenges. Bereavement, emotional issues, relationships and innumerable traumatic experiences are other areas I have helped with. Working alongside with you, I will try my best to help you make some sense of things. Hopefully this can help you to manage their many possible meanings, or maybe even find some new ones?  

My learnings encompass a deep understanding of attachment theory and how we can be so affected by our early years. Adverse childhood experiences can also create a legacy of distress that can last a lifetime. Trying as best you can to cope with these lingering affects can lead to endless cycles of struggling, repeating themselves often unknowingly in daily life. Sometimes events in our lives can create trauma symptoms, which I have worked with extensively around abuse and neglect and catastrophes. Increasing your self awareness of the profound affects of trauma (and learning coping strategies), helps with rebalancing you and allows you to grow back towards a more nourishing life again.

My work is informed by the Power Threat Meaning Framework, which seeks to take a holistic approach to your difficulties. It sees distress as an understandable response to life's challenging (and sometimes terrifying) experiences. This approach is a move away from the medical model of diagnosing suffering as a disease, which needs medicalised treatments. 

With my own life experiences around autism and neurodiversity, I am also specialising in this area too. I have developed a x3 phase approach to working with clients with autism/ND. This is to explore your 'unique cocktail' of possible autism/ND traits, accentuate positive skills and interests (and consider transferring these skills to other parts of your life) and for everything else learn coping strategies.

Qualifications

• Person Centered Experiential Counselling (PG DiP dist)                                
• Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction practitioner                                             
• Member of British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (Accredited)

I have worked with around +800 clients with +10,000 hrs practice experience. 

Neurodiversity experiences 

For about 17 years, I volunteered with the Dyspraxia Foundation as the local area coordinator for Manchester and Cheshire. I gave advice and help to many individuals and families for years and held regular monthly meetings for parents and children. 

My lived experiences as a father of a child (now an adult) with autism and neurodiversity has been life-enriching and changing. My own personal lived experiences have added to this knowledge, as well as my extensive therapeutic practices. I have sensitivities and compassion for individuals and families where autism and neurodiversity are present. 

Working with girls and women, with either diagnosed or suspected autism traits and neurodiversity, has taught me lots about how females can present differently in their lives. Using masking and mimicry as camouflage can bring its own problems. Many females are not picked up during educational years, due to these coping strategies, yet anxiety and social relational difficulties can nevertheless create lifelong issues. 

Around 7yrs ago, I realised that I too have many attributes of ADHD (I had always known I have dyslexia too). This ADHD awareness was needless to say rocking, especially as I had been an experienced counsellor for years by then. As I have learnt so much more about myself as a result, many of my own life struggles have made much more sense! So I hope I can be useful to you too, trying to make what sense is possible as a result of your life struggles, challenges and decisions. 

£55.00 per session