Maria Smith
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
My name is Maria Smith and I am a fully qualified, Accredited, Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy. I had been a qualified counsellor for 14 years. I have a rich pallet of counselling experiences with individuals and young people in various settings such as private practice, fostering, looked after children and young people, schools, youth centres, churches, charities and non-profit organisations. I consider myself to be a unique therapist with experience in both secular and spiritual worlds. My own belief is that all people are born to be good and achieve in life, however, we are conditioned by our environments and those around us. This is the therapeutic frame in which I work as a humanistic, person-centred counsellor. I also believe that we function on many different levels such as physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual and all these levels seek to find harmony (integrate and communicate) and which can be overwhelming, but not impossible to establish.
I speak three languages at native level and have offered counselling in these languages which was both interesting and very rewarding. I value each and every client regardless of their identity, status or ethnicity. I aim to be non-judgmental, confidential and to provide a safe and healthy environment to develop relationships with my clients.
I have a particular interest in: attachment issues, trauma, identity, family dynamics and family matters. I also have a personal interest in Mental Health and Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and I adhere totally to the BACP professional and ethical framework. I have professional indemnity insurance and I work in the historic City of Rochester, Kent.
I offer both long term and short term counselling.
Training, qualifications & experience
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) member (MBACP Accred), member of the voluntary accredited register http://www.bacpregister.org.uk/check_register/result_details.php?personid=1213046
- Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling Lev 4 CPCAB 2009
- Certificate in Counselling Studies Lev 3 CPCAB 2005
- Certificate in Counselling Skills Lev 2 2005
- Certificate in Understanding Development - Adolescence Sept 2019 Tavistock and Portman NHS
- Certificate in Children's Accelerated Trauma Technique (CAAT 2019) The British Association of Art Therapists BAAT
- Families and Beyond Introduction to Systemic Family Therapy Tavistock and Portman NHS - Completed 2018 December
- Certificate of attending: The Fragile Self: working with narcissistic vulnerability, grandiosity, shame and alienation February 2018
- The Myth of Normal in an insane culture- Gabor Mate June 06/2023
- Compassionate Inquiry- Master Class - a powerful approach to for healing anxiety and addictions, ADHD (Gabor Mate )June 2023
- Psychodelics in Modern healing (Gabor Mate) June 2023
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 - £75.00
Concessions offered for
Additional information
Initial Assessment- this is an informal first meeting in which I can explain more about therapy and you can also gain more insight into how we might work together. it is an opportunity to consider together different options and make arrangements that will work best for you.
My Initial Assessment Fees are £55 for individual and £75 for couples
My sessions are 50 mins long both for assessments and counselling sessions, except couples assessment and sessions which might be 60-70 mins long.
My Counselling Sessions fees are £55 and £75 for couples.
I also offer lower rate to those booking block set of 10-20 sessions.
When I work
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Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
