Jo Thompson
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
You're the world expert on you. But, if you want a friendly and insightful ally as you walk on metaphorically tricky paths, I hope to offer to you scope to choose from a range of approaches - creative, narrative, gestalt and solution-focused. Together we can work out new visions for your future and help you weave new ideas about your competencies. Please feel free to ask.
Sessions are warm, confidential, mature and efective. Tears are not unusual. But sometimes wry laughter is appropriate too. I regard clients not as 'patients' but as co-explorers.
Zoom, email and letter contact offered to people, such as air cabin crew, who can't manage regular slots. For those who want to work with textile art therapy, I meet face to face in central Huddersfield. I also run group sessions in London and the Lake District.
My qualifications are overseen by the main validating body, the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body, CPCAB. I'm a Registered Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. I abide by their ethical code. And like all counsellors I have regular clinical supervision to improve my practice.
Training, qualifications & experience
- I work internationally, although now living rurally on the edge of Yorkshire moors. So wherever you are, I may well understand you and your world.
- You'll find I've done a lot of wide training and exploring that may benefit you. I've been in the enabling professions for many years. Most people say they like me being 'old' because I have such a range of experiences to wisely draw on.
- I've twice qualified for advanced diplomas as a counsellor: first in a type of gestalt therapy (called Contribution Training) at the Pellin Institute, London; second as an integrative practitioner (Level 4) with Trinity Training at the Tree of Life Centre, West Yorkshire. I am qualified in delivering therapies remotely.
- I've also completed many additional therapy courses including Narrative Therapy, creative therapies, coaching, journalling, and solution-focused brief counselling.
- Among the specialist professional courses I continue to do are those on Gender and Sexual Relationship Diverse/ LGBT+ issues; Boarding School Syndrome; combat-related PTSD's impact on spouses; and surviving hearing loss
- My experiences - which may benefit you too - include that I've been a Samaritan and helpline volunteer, linking nationwide; worked creatively in UK hospices; and helped many people write/re-present their lifestories.
- Doing several university degrees has shown me how much our lived history in the real world shapes our current difficulties - and our strengths. Social change truly helps 'personal' problems; that's why I'm a member of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility.
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
Additional information
Some sliding scale fees may be possible. Do ask.
Further information
Availability now: I currently have a few vacancies. Please ask.
When I work: varying hours including Saturdays. Do ask. I can be flexible.
Types of client: it's important that we feel like 'a good fit'; you'll develop faster that way. As a diversity activist I especially welcome people dealing with intersectional difficulties e.g. the overlapping problems caused by gender, race, class, disability, sexual orientation, height, intelligence, and location.
Please contact me via text or email. I can't usually answer phone calls, because I am with someone. But I aim to respond to you within a working day. Thank you.
