James Hayward


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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Life can be really tough, and I'm guessing you're reading this because you want some help, to feel better about yourself or your situation. Our counselling sessions can achieve just that. Welcome to Journey Counselling Cheltenham. My passion is to provide a warm, empathic space where you can find the words to talk about the difficult things in your life. Building a good working relationship helps the client to feel safe to explore aspects that might otherwise remain hidden. There is something very powerful in saying something out loud. Being really heard and accepted by someone who isn't part of your family or circle of friends can be very freeing. Sessions are held in a peaceful, garden room setting. Each session lasts 50 minutes.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have experience of working with a wide range of different issues. These include: depression, anxiety, low self esteem, loss & grief, relationships, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, suicidal feelings, childhood issues and health related issues. A creative approach can be really helpful. For example, you could bring a song or a picture which is important to you. We can spend some time exploring that and drawing out some key issues. It's true that a picture paints a thousand words. You don't need to be an artist, any creative expression can be helpful in unlocking our trauma. A stickman drawing, an abstract picture or a photograph, all can provide insight into our inner world.
My training is Integrative Person Centred & Psychodynamic. The central belief of Person Centred therapy is that we all have an inbuilt drive to become the best we can be, our true self. Given a good, therapeutic relationship, we can explore feelings, behaviours and beliefs. This promotes self awareness and understanding. The psychodynamic part of my training is thinking about how current feelings and behaviours are impacted by past experiences and the subconscious. Talking about childhood and early key relationships can be very beneficial in the journey of self discovery. I know that this is not always easy, and it is up to the individual client if this is an area that they want to explore.
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
£55.00 per session
Further information
In our first session, we will talk about what brings you to counselling and what you would like to gain from it. The session will give you an idea as to how we might work together and whether I'm the right fit for you.