Mark Welsh
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About me
Hello I'm Mark and thanks for stopping by. I guess, you may be feeling nervous, not quite sure of what to do next, feeling perhaps a loss of direction or just feeling what's the point or I can't be bothered really, and that's okay, we're all human and we're all just trying to do our best navigating the complexities of our relationships with ourselves, with others and perhaps with society as a whole and perhaps even beyond, all okay.
A little of my story
Well done if you're still reading. I'm pleased you're still with me. So for my story: I work as a counsellor and have done in my own practice for a little over nine years now. Alongside this, I have also volunteered with two charities in Cambridge supporting people who have experienced childhood trauma and working with people who have lost loved ones. I continue to volunteer with a local charity, Choices Counselling, that offers long term therapeutic support to those who have experienced early or developmental trauma. Before counselling, I had been teaching for almost 25 years in further education (16 to adult) in Cambridge, London and abroad.
A little about the work
Over the last nine years, I qualified in 2016, I have found that people who I have worked with or counselled have generally responded to being accepted for who they are, not being judged but being heard; feeling like they have a voice or voices in the counselling room. I say voices here as I work with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) clients and have done for over 4 years now. I also work with, and have done for over 5 years, BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) now sometimes termed as EUPD (Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder). Both of these client groups, or more precisely just ordinary people trying to do the best they can given what they have experienced, and as with all my other clients, no matter what the presenting issues are, I value all of them hugely. Over the past nine years I have come to realise just how significant the relationship is and finding someone you feel comfortable with, can be life changing not just for the clients, but for me too. So it's not just one way. Again we're all human as I have learnt so much from my clients, in other words the people I have worked with over the years. Again we're all just people trying our best, or if your like me, then just muddling through.
The way things tend to go
The way things tend to go is usually, if people can talk to me, then typically given time and perhaps if people wish they may like to try various things, practical things or reflective things which we talk about in the sessions, then essentially in time, clients can then share with their closest friends, partners or if they feel comfortable enough with given family members. Basically then, the relationship in the sessions becomes a template if you like that we design together, and one of course which can then be used outside of the meeting room or space. As with many people now, post Covid, I have a hybrid working pattern so I offer in-person work in Chesterton Cambridge, online work via Zoom or of course telephone work. I'm happy to do any of the three or a blend as some clients choose.
How long will it last and how will I know?
I'll try me best to answer this without resorting to the how high is up or perhaps worse: how long is a piece of string response; good grief, not very helpful. Anyway, sometimes people are okay with 3, 6 sessions or 12 sessions, others may prefer longer or open-ended work. Only you can decide when the time is right and you have had enough. Usually I have found when your gaze turns outwards rather than inwards, this can be a real sign of movement. It may be simple things like asking someone how they are, how's it going, just taking an interest I guess. These can be real signs of a gradual shift from inside to outside, or from diving to surfacing. Occasionally some people I've worked with have feared endings, so of course once they've been ready and always with their permission, we have looked at what that fear was about. Once they have been able to talk it through, then it's helped to empower them to say okay Mark, I think I'm ready to move on now and that's completely fine.
Some counselling language
If you're looking for the technical or counselling language, then I initially trained as a humanistic counsellor (identifying blockages that thwart human potential) though I have also had training in Adlerian counselling (more about identifying our internal scripts carried from childhood and looking at how these have shaped our lives in what could be socially harmful or helpful ways with a view to helping us to gain a sense of belonging within our relationships and communities). Much of the cognitive work of the present, you may have heard of CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy is grounded in Adlerian psychology. So the subsequent cognitive training I have had in CBT and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) as well as CFT (Compassion Focussed Therapy) and more recently DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) has all grown quite naturally from my earlier training. However, the person is always number one not the theory.
When I look back now over the past decade almost, I have found that working holistically or with the whole person in other words, their thoughts, feelings, memories, their experiencing of the world as it is now for them and how they feel about their place within it, has tended to work to help form that template for their relationships with themselves, and with others and beyond.
CPD or Continuing Professional Development
Yes, great believer in this, or in ongoing learning and training (CPD) as it helps to reassure me that I'm doing the best I can in the work I do. So I attend monthly professional training meetings with Choices charity in Cambridge and have done for the bulk of the last nine years. I also do ongoing online training, much of which I've listed in the next section and as with the Choices work, this has been over the same period or the past nine years. Continuing professional development is also a good sign of professional and ethical practice too. I think there's now 60,000 plus members of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and I number one of them. If you would like to know more about how counsellors work generally then the BACP's Ethical Framework may be a helpful source which you can look up online if you wish. It's in the public domain, so if you like, you can find it online and freely accessible.
A big thanks for reading this so far.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Work Experience:
- Counselling in Private Practice: Cambridge. (Oct 16 - Present)
- Counsellor (Private & Volunteer) at Choices Counselling Cambridge. (Jan 16 - Present)
- Bereavement Support Volunteer at Cruse Bereavement Care, Cambridge. (June 15 - Dec 22)
Counselling Training & Qualifications:
- The APT Diploma in Psychological Therapies Incorporating ACT, CFT, CBT, DBT Essentials and Motivational Interviewing, 90 hours in total, online CPD Continuing Professional Development (Dec 22 to Aug 24) Dr William Davis Clinical Psychologist and Director at APT. (The Association for Psychological Therapies)
- Adlerian Society UK Institute for Individual Psychology (ASIIP) Post Dip. Couns. CPD In Person Training in Adlerian Counselling (Sept 17 - June 21.)
Bottisham Village College, Bottisham, Cambs. - Dip. Couns. AQA/AIM (Humanistic) Sept 12 - July 16 In Person Counselling Training at Hills Rd Sixth Form College, Cambridge and Chesterton Community College, Cambridge. (Eve Classes/ Weekends/ Summer Terms)
- AIM L4 Cert. Working with Depression (Sept. - Dec '15)
In person training at CPDC Cambridge Professional Development Centre, Cambridge.
- Understanding Depression, Anxiety and CBT Uni. of Reading (Online CPD) May '16
The Therapeutic Relationship:
- 'Irvin Yalom and the Art of Psychotherapy' Irvin Yalom BACP/ Psychotherapy Academy (Online January-February 25)
- 'Working in the Here-and-Now: Therapeutic Encounters' Victor Yalom BACP/ Psychotherapy Academy (Online February 25)
Psychosexual Work:
- Counselling partners and family members of those who have sexually harmed. StopSO/ COSRT (Online Sept 22)
- Attachment, Neuroscience and Sexual Behaviour Dr. Glyn Hudson Allez (Online Jan 21)
- Prof. Cert. Trauma, Harmful Compulsions and Harmful Sexual Behaviour StopSO/COSRT London (Oct 19 - Feb 20)
- Fdn. Cert. Working with issues around sex, sexuality and relationships StopSO/COSRT Glasgow (Apr 19)
- Choices Counselling Training (Working with survivors of childhood trauma/ PTSD/ CPTSD) Cambridge (Oct - Nov '15)
Trauma/ DID/ Dissociative Experiencing/ Systems Work:
- Foundations of Plural Competence Cert. (Working with DID/ OSDD/ Systems/ Multiples/ Plurals) TPA Plural Academy April - June 26.
- Dissociation: Creative Survival Jan Hawkins (janhawkins.co.uk) online June 26.
- Understanding and Treating Disorganised Attachment and Dissociation: Exploring DID through the Lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology Dr Daniel Siegel (Pesi/ Mindsight Institute/ Psychotherapy Networker) Online Jan to March 26
- Dissociation and Developmental Stages Jan Hawkins (janhawkins.co.uk) Online March 26
- Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and CPTSD Jan Hawkins (janhawkins.co.uk) online Dec 25
- Working with Dissociative Disorders. Choices Counselling, Huntingdon, Cambs. In person Nov 24.
- Anxiety and Panic Attacks from a Person-centred Perspective Jan Hawkins (janhawkins.co.uk) online June 23
- Compassionate Inquiry Masterclass: Healing Addiction, Anxiety and Trauma. Gabor Mate speaking in Toronto, Canada and Washington DC, USA via PESI UK Psychotherapy and Counselling CPD online March-Apr 23
- Trauma, Dissociation and the Person Centred Approach Jan Hawkins (janhawkins.co.uk) online Apr 23
- Working with Shame. Carolyn Spring Reversing Adversity (carolynspring.com) online Dec 21
- Mindsight, Attachment and Clinical Integration Dr Dan Siegel (University of California, Los Angeles) via PESI UK. Online (Aug. 21)
- Working with Dissociative Disorders in Clinical Practice. Carolyn Spring Reversing Adversity (carolynspring.com) online (May/June 21)
- Helping clients to manage anger. Martin Hogg BACP Prof Devel. (Jan21)
- Working with shame. Choices Counselling, Cambridge. (Jan 21)
- Exploring personality disorders especially borderline personality disorder in relation to trauma. Choices Counselling, Cambridge. (Oct 20)
- Looking at alcoholism within the context of trauma. Choices Counselling, Cambridge (July 20)
- Within the context of trauma, working with suicidal feelings. Choices Counselling, Cambridge. (May/ June 20)
- Working with Self Harm and Suicide PODS Training London July 18
- Working with Relational Trauma PODS Training London July 17
- Working with Dissociation PODS Training London July 17
- Caring for People with Psychoses Kings' College, London. May 16
- Choices Counselling Training (Working with survivors of childhood trauma/ PTSD/ CPTSD) Cambridge (Oct - Nov. '15)
Grief Counselling Work:
- 'Grief, Loss and Growing Old' Irvin Yalom BACP/ Psychotherapy Academy (Online, Feb. 25)
- 'Life After Suicide' Counselling those Bereaved by Suicide. Cruse Bereavement Care (Online, Oct 20)
- 'Exploring Loss and Bereavement' Cruse Bereavement Care (Online Training, July 20)
- Supporting the Bereaved by Suicide. Closed Group Support, Cruse Bereavement Care, Cambridge. (June 18 - Feb. 20) Temporarily closed due to Covid 19.
- Awareness in Bereavement Care Cert. Cruse Bereavement Care. Clinical Sch. Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. (Oct - Dec. 14)
Looking to Build a More Meaningful, Compassionate and Values Led Life:
- Motivational Interviewing (How to Use it Effectively) Based on the work of Dr William Miller and Dr Stephen Rollnick delivered by Dr William Davies (Association for Psychological Therapies) CPD Online June 24 - Aug 24.
- DBT Essentials (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) Based on the work of Dr Marsha Linehan delivered by Dr William Davies (Association for Psychological Therapies) CPD Online Oct 23 - Feb 24.
- CBT Essentials (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) Delivered by Dr William Davies (Association for Psychological Therapies) CPD Online June 23 - Sept 23.
- CFT Essentials (Compassion Focused Therapy) Based on the work of Prof Paul Gilbert delivered by Dr William Davies (Association for Psychological Therapies) CPD Online Feb - March 23.
- ACT Essentials (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) Based on the work of Dr Stephen Hayes delivered by Dr William Davies (Association for Psychological Therapies) CPD Online Dec 22 - Jan 23
- The Life Journey (Rigidity and Change) Caroline Brazier BACP CPD Online (Nov 20)
- Exploring the psychological and spiritual needs of the middle aged and older clients Els Van Ooijen BACP CPD Online (Nov 20)
- Discovering a Spiritual Identity Andelo Tabu BACP CPD Online (Dec 20/ Jan 21)
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
£45.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
£45 per (60 minute) hour.
£30 for first session of one hour.
When I work
Currently full until Wednesday 8th July 2026.
Updated 3rd July 2026.
Further information
Counsellor or Therapist/ Psychotherapist
Sometimes clients ask what is the difference between a counsellor and a therapist/ psychotherapist. Perhaps a better way to approach this question is to reframe it in terms of the sessions. They all work to create a therapeutic alliance with the client which offers then a space in which clients can explore their issues with the counsellor/therapist working as an ally to encourage them to recognise a unique way forward for them, perhaps based upon the template that we have designed together mentioned earlier, so potentially there are more than 7 billion ways or 7 billion templates as each client is a unique world within themselves. Essentially then it is a therapeutic way of working which typically begins with a period of exploration, which can lead to insight and this in turn could result in change leading to personal growth.
Carl Rogers and Potatoes
(Striving to Become; a Key Tenet of the Person Centred Approach.)
"I remember that in my boyhood, the bin in which we stored our winter’s supply of potatoes was in the basement, several feet below a small window. The conditions were unfavourable, but the potatoes would begin to sprout — pale, white sprouts, so unlike the healthy green shoots they sent up when planted in the soil in the spring. But these sad, spindly sprouts would grow 2 or 3 feet in length as they reached toward the distant light of the window. The sprouts were, in their bizarre, futile growth, a sort of desperate expression of the directional tendency ... [and] under the most adverse circumstances, they were striving to become. Life would not give up... In dealing with clients whose lives have been terribly warped, in working with men and women on the back wards of state hospitals, I often think of those potato sprouts. So unfavourable have been the conditions in which these people have developed that their lives often seem abnormal, twisted ... Yet, the directional tendency in them can be trusted. The clue to understanding their behaviour is that they are striving, in the only ways that they perceive as available to them, to move toward growth, toward becoming."
Carl Rogers (A Way of Being 1980)
Focusing on the whole person:
The Best Explanation of Addiction I’ve Ever Heard – Dr. Gabor Maté - YouTube
(This YouTube video outlines the process of working on the person)
A Short Note about the Business
Just a short note to add, in terms of the business, it's just me, Mark. I prefer to keep things small scale, focusing on the individual needs of each of the people I work with, while keeping up to date with research, training and supervision.
