Jimmy Whiteaker

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Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

Bristol BS1 & BS6
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

The heart of my practice, person centred therapy, is really an art of relationship. While carefully holding what brings you, we would attend to what goes on between us too: the relationship itself is the tool we use.

I am a trauma informed therapist specialising in relationships. I work with people whose pain, anxiety or trauma stems from relationships themselves. 

Looking at the here and now - how we are relating - is powerful as it often brings to light how you relate to yourself, and therefore to others. Perhaps how you reject parts of yourself, how you may be stuck, what is actually driving your anxiety or depression.

Therapy can be many things - as many things as there are people - though generally I find it a deeply creative, collaborative act. We work with your raw materials, your past and present, to form things anew for you. Your raw materials will include the adaptations you made to cope, or survive, in your difficult relationships. Sometimes those adaptations are still there doing their best to help you cope or survive, though life has moved on. Therapy is a chance to free up your resources sunk in coping to encounter life as it is here and now.

Warmth and genuine attunement are big parts of what I offer as a therapist. I would work with you to create an environment where you can challenge, drop, change or keep more easily what you are living with at the moment. 

I am finding that I increasingly work with people who have ADHD. Person centred therapy seems a very good fit for clients with this neurodiversity.

Email me to arrange a time to talk further on the phone free of charge.

Training, qualifications & experience

Foundation Degree in Person Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Post-Qualifying Diploma in Counselling Children and Young People.

I currently work for Trauma Foundation South West in Bristol, and as a tutor for Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling. I have previously worked in two schools as a therapist. 

Alongside a depth training in person centred counselling and psychotherapy, I am a trauma-informed therapist and often bring body-based therapy, attachment theory, creative interventions and mindfulness in to my work with clients as appropriate. I am experienced in working with people with neurodiversity including ADHD, dyspraxia, ASD and dyslexia.

I am further trained in working with children and young people in ways specifically relevant to those ages. Children and young people often express their distress through their behaviour - something you will have noticed as a parent.  Therapy with young people has a similar flavour, action and resistance, full of movement. Youth is a time of powerful change which therapy seeks to harness.

Member organisations

Registered / Accredited

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.

NCPS
National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)

The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

This Not For Profit association of counsellors and psychotherapists aim to support the counselling profession, members and training organisations.

In 2013 the NCS register was accredited by the Professional Standards Authority under the Accredited Voluntary Register Scheme. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.

Accredited register membership

National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society
Accredited Register Scheme

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.

National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society

Fees

£60.00 per session
Free initial telephone or online session

When I work

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Night

Wednesdays in central Bath.

Tuesdays in Redland / Cotham area of Bristol.

Thursdays central Bristol, very close to Hippodrome.

Further information

For Parents

Whether struggling or not, young people are constantly changing and growing - therapy can help your child harness their natural talent for change and growth to heal and move forward.

The young clients I see tend toward a mix of creative and talking therapy. However they shape their sessions, your child and I will create a warm and trusted environment as they move through their process. 

I do sometimes suggest that parents and I work together. Sometimes this is all that is needed, supporting you in your important job of parenting your child.

I also know how intensely precious and challenging the responsibility of parenting can be, having my own two children. 

My background

I trained for three years in person centred counselling and psychotherapy, going on to train for a further year in working specifically with children and young people.

Alongside my private practice, I work some of the week for a very established charity providing counselling in the heart of Bath. Until recently I worked as a therapist in primary and secondary school settings.

Over the last twenty-something years I have worked in both residential and community settings supporting adults and young people with complex and enduring mental health issues; I went on to work in Early Years and Playwork; I then made professional theatre as an actor, writer, director and facilitator with children, young people and adults. I still occasionally work in educational settings with young people and direct theatre.

I have a meditation practice stretching back to my teens to draw on if appropriate. Though I do not call it mindfulness, many of my clients young and old have found elements of meditation as enormously helpful as I do.

Sessions with me

All sessions last 50 minutes.

The beautiful, light rooms I use in Bristol and Bath are set up for working creatively with children and adolescents as much as with adults.

There is parking close to the room I use in Bristol and a bus stop a very short walk away.

Many Bath clients find parking in the Sainsbury’s supermarket opposite convenient, and there is a bus stop just outside.

Bristol, Avon, BS1

Type of session

In person
Online
Phone

Types of client

Children
Young people
Adults
Older adults

Key details

DBS check

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Online platforms

Skype
Zoom
Jimmy Whiteaker
Jimmy Whiteaker