Kerry James

Me as a Professional

Hi, I’m Kerry and I am an integrative, creative counsellor working with both adults and young people. I bring a wide range of both work related and lived experiences to my relationships with my clients and work on a daily basis with anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, school issues, family issues, relationship difficulties, low self-esteem and confidence, health issues and bereavement and loss.

I have worked previously in a local hospice, where I supported people receiving palliative care and those dealing with bereavement, grief and loss. I have also worked with young people at a local secondary school supporting them through anxiety, depression, behavioural difficulties, grief, abuse, identity and much more.  I now co-run a private practice.

In 2018, I co-founded the Youth Intervention Centre in Ivybridge, alongside my psychotherapist daughter, where we initially specialised in helping young people and their families.  In 2022 we expanded into helping support adults to  deal with the difficulties and challenges that life can throw at us.

How do I work

As an integrative counsellor I am trained specifically in Person Centred Therapy, Gestalt and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).  I use a mix of these three approaches depending on how you as my client want to work and what you'd like to bring to our sessions.  I can adapt to whatever your goals for therapy are, and as a creative therapist I can also add in other ways of working using art, clay, cards, lego, games etc.   I'm also more than happy to simply sit and talk if this is what you prefer.

For me, counselling is about building a relationship of trust, care and mutual respect. My main aim is to offer a safe space for you or your young person to be heard and accepted without judgement. We don’t always have support that we can trust, or we might feel that we would burden our loved ones with our thoughts and feelings. Having someone impartial who can listen to us and help us find a way through can be really helpful.

Me personally

As for me as a person, I'm quite laid back and down to earth. I live in a beautiful part of the country and when I'm able I love walking on Dartmoor, the coast and our lovely woodlands. I try to call myself a gardener but I'm not sure my garden would agree! I do live with MS (Multiple Sclerosis), a chronic health auto immune condition so when I'm too tired to do those things I love hanging out with my family, playing games of all types - board games, computer games and even an escape room from time to time and of course, binge watching a Netflix series or two!

If you'd like to know more about me and the work I do then please get in touch and I look forward to hearing from you.

I'm also qualified to run 'clay conversations', one off sessions that can support people's wellbeing and work through a particular issue you might have that's affecting you.  These last an hour and a half and cost £80.  They are often really helpful for those who don't have a lot of time or money to engage with longer term therapy or who might be unsure whether counselling is for them.  Get in touch for more information.  (I can also run these as a one off talking session or a different type of creative medium if that interests you).  Get in touch to chat more about this.