Marina Stepanova
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Are you someone who tends to avoid conflict at all cost? Do you feel selfish when you think of looking after your needs? Is it easier to just go along with something rather than express how you truly feel?
It makes sense why it`s so hard to honestly tell people about your thoughts and feelings. You have most probably experienced being in relationships where that wasn`t welcome. You may have even been punished by silent treatment, threats of ending the relationship, being manipulated into feeling guilty or selfish. You may still remember the pain or fear you felt when it was happening. You may even be in this situation right now. So of course you have learnt that it is safer to NOT say if something doesn`t feel okay as it was never acknowledged or addressed. This goes for all relationships - parents, family members, friends, intimate relationships, and even professional ones.
We learn about our place in the world and whether we are good enough or not at a very young age and take it into the adult life. If our important grown ups were dealing with their own problems without giving a thought to how we might be feeling in this unsettling and sometimes even turbulent situation, we may have developed a belief that others come first and what they feel and need is more important.
Nothing major has to happen for us to be affected. Most of us have experience of moving house, going to a new school, falling out with a friend, being bullied or ridiculed, parents getting divorced, being in an accident and so on. All of those experiences would affect our nervous system in a negative way. If we were not supported emotionally through those situations we would store those confusing and sometimes scary emotions in their original form thinking that it has all been forgotten and then being puzzled as to why we may feel anxious or have panic attacks come out of nowhere. Life has a tendency to also just happen so now you may find yourself being overwhelmed with a heap of unresolved stuff not knowing where to even start sorting it out. This is when it may help to find a safe space that a skilled professional provides.
It has nothing to do with "dwelling on the past" or blaming the parents. It is about recognising your own experience and understanding that even though those around you were most probably doing their best, you still got hurt along the way. It really is about you taking stock of what has affected you and how with the view of making desirable changes that will align with how you want to live.
Therapy helps because it facilitates the brain to start building new neural pathways which will gradually help change the unhelpful patterns that developed very often without your conscious participation. So if you are unable to say "no" because it brings intolerable feelings of guilt - this is a pattern that`s developed for you and it can be changed with some time and effort. Open, safe, non-judgmental space is a foundation for this change to happen.
This is something that I enjoy supporting my clients with – understanding their patterns, exploring how they developed, processing the emotions that have been buried for years, and discovering how to create new more helpful ways of interacting with the others and yourself.
If you would like to find out what it would be like for us to work together, send me a message to book your first session.
Training, qualifications & experience
I work with people who feel anxious, afraid and overwhelmed, as well as unsure of what to do and how to help themselves. A lot of my clients have been through difficult experiences growing up and are dealing with painful memories which very often bring physical sensations with them. Some clients already know why they feel the way they feel, but have no idea of what to do to change the symptoms. They very often feel hopeless, as if there is no choice but to live this way forever.
I work in a way that is slow and steady, as I believe that sustainable psychological changes happen over-time, not overnight. As my client, you will have a safe space where we can explore your issues and challenges together, which will enable you to build more awareness of how you actually experience them. We then work on making changes. I will ask questions as we go along, because it is important for me to know what it is like to be in your world. As our relationship develops, you will hopefully be able to make the changes you are longing for.
I developed interest in the subject of Psychology in my early teens and had a dream of working with people on a one-to-one basis supporting them through life`s challenges.
When I was 19, I decided to travel to England with the aim of acquiring a Bachelor`s Degree in Psychology (University of Bedfordshire), which I achieved in 2007.
My further training involved a Foundation Course in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2012) and then a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2015). Both of them from Regents University in London.
I am dedicated to undertaking continuous professional development training.
CPD courses I`ve completed recently:
Primary Certificate in Single Session Therapy (21/11/2022)
Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (7/04/2022)
Expert Strategies to Help Clients Develop Tolerance for Emotional Distress (April 2021)
Trauma treatment with EMDR, CBT and Somatic Based Interventions: A Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Training Course (June 2020)
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
- Narcissistic abuse
- Codependence
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£60.00 per session
Additional information
£60.00 per session (50 minutes)
£230 for four sessions when paid in advance
When I work
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Morning and early afternoon sessions available
Duration of the session - 50 minutes
Further information
The First Step
- Send me a message to arrange your free 15-minute call
- I will respond to you within 48 hours
- We will meet at a time convenient for both of us
What can I expect from the free initial consultation?
- I will ask you some questions about you, such as what you would like support with, your hopes for the future and expectations of the therapy process, whether you`ve had therapy before (what`s worked and what hasn`t), any medical history that is relevant to our work together
- You can ask me any question about the process
- I will tell you about how I work and whether I think that I am the best person to support you at this time
- You can then go away and make a decision in your own time whether you would like to work with me
Next Step
- If you decide that you would like to work with me, we will arrange our first session
- I will email you all the necessary paperwork
- We will then meet for our first session
How long does it take?
It is a gentle and steady process where we will be exploring what it is like for you to be in your world, how your past or present situations and relationships may be affecting you and how to start changing.
There is no minimum or maximum amount of sessions; you can stay for as long as you feel it is beneficial.
How long is the session?
- Free initial call is 15 minutes long
- A full session is 50 minutes long
Frequency of the sessions
I normally see clients on a weekly basis (as it seems to be the most helpful, especially to start with), however, I have some spaces for fortnightly sessions available if you feel that it`s what you need or can afford at the moment.
