Lourdes Alejo
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Empathy, warmth and intuition are the qualities I bring to my counselling work, grounded all by an ongoing analysis. My ever enquiring mind has fuelled my desire for learning through -easy and less easy- study, training and life experience, all of which informs my professional practice.
I feel a genuine interest in what my clients bring to me and I customise my work style to their views, feelings and aims. Reciprocal confidentiality is very important for me and is expected for the effectiveness of the work.
I am an experienced Counsellor in private practice in the easily accessible town centre of the historic Roman city of St Albans, Hertfordshire, right by the St Albans Museum.
I have also worked online and on the phone for many years. I do feel quite comfortable working in this way, which seems to have a reassuring effect on my most sensitive clients, who often surprise themselves experiencing remote counselling in a much more relaxed and effective way than they anticipated.
I also work in Spanish.
To get started, message (or email me) to set up a first session. Then you can speak about the issue that brought you to counselling. If we both are happy to continue, we will set up a second session. Then we will discuss the frequency of further sessions. You got yourself started!
I just wish to say that I very much appreciate the willingness and courage for anyone to consider therapy as a way of being proactive with their lives.
Training, qualifications & experience
I qualified as a Counsellor in Psychosynthesis at the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust, after completing a MA in Mysticism and Religious Experience at the University of Kent, with a high content in Psychology whilst also attending seminars on Jungian Psychology.
I worked as a Counsellor for a number of years at Mind (the mental health charity) and created and managed a successful Counselling Service for Parents in a number of Primary Schools in a mostly disadvantaged community of East London, where I developed a way of working towards the holistic wellbeing of the children through direct therapeutic work with the parents.
Alongside these enriching and formative experiences, I have been working in private practice to this day.
About my background, I can say that since my teens I developed an interest in Western and Eastern Esoteric Philosophy and Metaphysics.
Later on, I graduated in English Philology at the University of Salamanca, to go on to work as a teacher and form tutor in a secondary school in Kent.
Following my growing interest in Healing and Self-Realisation, I attended courses, workshops and training in some Shamanic tradition, hypnotherapy, dream work, and mythology and fairy tales from a psychological perspective.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
- Working with dreams
- Issues around cultural differences
- Parental counselling
- Questioning identity (social, religious, sexual)
- Questioning own faith/Disaffection from own faith/Transition to a new faith
- Breaking from a cult or sect
- Existential and Metaphysical questioning
- Past/present contact with borderline/narcissistic personality disorder
Therapies offered
Fees
£70.00 - £100.00
Additional information
My fee ranges from £70 to £100 per full hour and is normally paid in advance by bank transfer, including any introductory session or one-off consultation.
Special personal circumstances, together with motivation and commitment will be sensitively considered.
After one or two sessions, if we both are happy to proceed, a block of four sessions will be booked by making the corresponding payment in advance, to be reviewed at the end of the fourth session.
Once the system of fours is in place, it can be reviewed every fourth session.
Any decision pertaining attendance and frequency will ideally be discussed by us both.
The usual frequency is weekly, especially in the first stages of the therapy/counselling process. After these, every other week is sometimes a working option.
Please realize 48 hours cancellation notice policy will apply.
When I work
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Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm during term time.
Further information
In relation to the Areas of counselling I deal with, when it comes to 'Child related issues' it is worthy to be reminded of the following. The therapeutic style I successfully developed when working with children in the Counselling Service I created for Primary Schools (please see Training, qualifications and experience) consisted of working with the presenting issue through the parents.
The only way in which I would be working with any child related issue is and has always been, through working with the parents, not with the children themselves.
This way of working has proved to be a more organic holistic healing experience for them all.
