Joanna Russell
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This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
How might counselling help?
When life feels painful it can seem like we are hamsters in a wheel, no matter how we run the view stays the same. Worried about burdening friends and family we keep our head down and ‘get on with it’ shutting away all those difficult feelings.
The counselling relationship, with someone outside of your everyday life, provides an opportunity to be listened to and to feel heard. To be received without judgement while exploring your feelings, thoughts and actions within the context of your lived experience. Through this relational and collaborative process there is potential for greater self-awareness and understanding which can allow us to begin to experience our world differently.
What will it be like in the sessions?
I very much feel that my client is the expert in themselves and that the counselling process can develop that inner knowing, connecting to feelings and thoughts that lie beneath everyday expression deepening - even transforming their sense of self. I often find clients gain self-awareness through exploring parts of self and their conflicting and harmonious interactions. I believe that in this more developed attunement there can be increased awareness of, and potential to transform, blocks to what Carl Rogers described as ‘full functioning’.
I adhere to an integrative humanistic model of counselling aiming to connect and attune to each client - to build a warm, trusting and collaborative relationship. My intention is to see each client as unique, original and autonomous; to work in an empathetic and exploratory way in helping you come into deeper understanding of your inner environment and how that impacts your outer experiencing. By listening holistically while offering measured challenge and encouragement I can facilitate you in moving towards your therapeutic goals.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications
I qualified with a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling from York St John University and am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). I am a qualified EMDR therapist. I also have a diploma in Pet Bereavement Counselling from the Centre of Excellence and hold an MA in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, California USA. I have an advanced CRB certificate and carry professional indemnity insurance.
I regularly access Continuing Professional Development and attend monthly clinical supervision in support of maintaining safe, ethical and effective working through reflective and relational processing. I draw on and abide by the personal qualities, values, professional standards and ethics of the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.
I have a special interest and additional training in pet bereavement and extensive experience working with adult clients who are dealing with ....
- Low mood/depression
- Anxiety
- Bereavement/loss
- Complicated grief
- Poor self-esteem
- Relationship/family issues
- Difficult emotions
- Psychological trauma
- Domestic abuse
- Childhood sexual abuse
- Pet loss
- Work-related stress
- Academic pressures
- Chronic health issues
Member organisations
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Pet Bereavement Counselling
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£45.00 - £65.00
Free initial telephone session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
What next?
I'm very happy to answer any questions and we can arrange for a brief telephone call to talk through the counselling process. If you decide to go ahead with counselling we can schedule a time, typically weekly, to meet up via phone, online or at my location in Malton which has good transport links and off-road parking.
Counselling sessions are 60 minutes in length with £45 payable by BACS or cash at or before each session. Certain trauma-related issues may benefit from working with EMDR techniques in which case the fees are £65/60 minute session.
Client Feedback
"We built a trusting, open and sharing rapport which made every session worthwhile and fulfilling. I have gained a marked improvement in confidence and am dealing with my anxiety disorder in a positive and resourceful way."
"I took away tools that have greatly impacted my well-being."
"This period of counselling has helped me shift out of some old ways of thinking ... I see myself differently now."
When I work
Flexible weekday times available
Further information
'Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being. Leave that which is not, but appears to be. Seek that which is, but is not apparent.' – Rumi
