Mary Goodwill
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This professional is currently not accepting new clients at this time.
This professional is currently not accepting new clients at this time.
About me
Hello, my name is Mary – if you are here, you are most welcome...
I provide Talking Therapy and Somatic Body Therapy - listening, empathizing and treating all manner of mental health and wellbeing issues held in the mind and body.
I am a BACP registered counsellor and psychotherapist offering face-to-face therapy in Ottery St Mary, Devon and/or online therapy anywhere you reside.
To keep therapy more affordable for all, sessions are priced at £40 p/h. A free 20-minute introductory phone call is available to help you decide if I'm the right therapist for you.
Challenges in life face us all and may blinker our way ahead. Whatever might be troubling you – past, present, or future issues, I’m here to:
- Provide a safe, inclusive, comfortable, confidential space; somewhere your wellbeing is valued
- Build a trusting, warm psychotherapeutic relationship, in which to discover more about yourself
- Listen with empathy, openness, and non-judgement
- Respond with fairness, honesty, and sincerity in a down-to-earth manner
- Work collaboratively to find whichever approach is most helpful for you
- Walk alongside exploring your journey, giving you support along the way
- Sit with you through discomfort and uncertainty
- Provide you with coping tools to weather the toughest of storms
- Cultivate awareness, meaning, acceptance and hope
- Assist and encourage you to realize your potential, improve your self-esteem and confidence
- Help consider the choices available to you and whether you want to change ….
Perhaps you’ve decided it’s time to put yourself first, to begin to say no more to the critical voice of others or internally. Could it be that you'd like to understand yourself more - your thoughts, sensations and actions - so you can have a clearer intention to what you want from life? I hope we can work together therapeutically to ensure you can.
Feel free to call or email me to discuss a way forward. Warm wishes.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a fully qualified counsellor (Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling) with a psychology degree (BA Hons) which means I am trained in counselling skills, theory, and practice with the added benefit of having scientific knowledge regarding the human mind and behaviour. I’ve also been a schoolteacher which required strong interpersonal skills, creativity, adaptability, facilitating peoples’ unique abilities and of course, patience.
Topped off by…oodles of lived experience - my own continuing mental health journey.
I am influenced by several humanistic and integrative approaches which put you, your rights, and your experience at the centre of the work. I strongly believe that we humans are all interconnected, that we share many similarities, yet we are each radiantly unique - our work together will reflect all of this. I will draw on these principles and consult with you throughout as to the way you want to proceed with your therapy - because you know yourself best.
I have been glad to work for several different mental health care organizations for some time now ranging from Devon Partnership Trust (DPT), Devon Recovery Learning Community (DRLC), Balloons, Pete’s Dragons, Wellington Counselling, and the Margaret Jackson Centre meeting with a wide range of service users and clients.
I have encountered a wide range of clients with trauma, PTSD and c-PTSD; as a trauma - informed practitioner, we can work collaboratively to provide a safe space in which the trauma can be explored depending on your wishes (events do not need to be revisited). Healing, relief, empowerment and the realization that one need not be defined by the past or by labels have been frequent outcomes.
I’m a Registered Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP). I abide by this organization’s ethical framework, guidelines for good practice and codes of confidentiality.
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
As well as having experience with the above boxes ticked, I have other areas of knowledge and interest:
- obsessive compulsive ‘disorder’ OCD, pure O obsessive thoughts
- depression, low mood, feeling sad
- anxiety & uncertainty: health anxiety, ageing, death anxiety, panic attacks
- cognitive distortions - ruminating, intrusive thoughts, suicidal thoughts, flashbacks
- neurobiology, the nervous system and poly vagal theory
- loss – of work, health, physical abilities, neonatal loss, relationship and pet
- grief and bereavement – suicide, complicated, cumulative, disenfranchised grief
- cancer and illness (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome), pain management
- transitions - empty nest syndrome, moving, retirement, etc
- eating ‘disorders’ – anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating. restricting, AFRID.
- trauma - PTSD/ PTSR, c-PTSD (complex relational, fawning and co-dependency, trauma bonding).
- relationship issues
- EUPD – emotional unstable personality disorder, bipolar disorder.
- inner child work
- chakras
- attachment styles – avoidant, ambivalent, secure and disorganized
- Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR stress management
- Mindfulness techniques, visualizations, breath work, grounding, earthing, meditation. Buddhist and/or spiritual in flavour if preferred.
- Holistic healing
- Emotion Freedom Technique EFT Tapping Therapy
- Narcissism and narcissistic behaviours – gaslighting, manipulation, coercive control.
- Pattern changing.
- dreams and nightmares
- addictions - substance, alcohol, exercise, gambling, sex, porn, food, hoarding, phone, shop-lifting, gaming and effects on the partner, etc
- Adult children of alcoholic, substance using parents.
- self-sabotage, procrastination.
- isolation and loneliness
- neurodivergence – dyslexia, ADHD and learning ‘differences’
- parenting skills and challenges supporting children
- coaching
- working with shame, guilt, jealousy, resentment, forgiveness and regret.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£40.00 per session
Free initial telephone or online session
Additional information
Sessions are 1-hour long, charged at £40.00, weekly or fortnightly to suit your needs. I purposefully charge £40.00 to help make therapy more affordable for more individuals.
* If you enquire about therapy using your email as a contact, please also include your telephone number so I can let you know I have responded (some reply emails may default to junk depending on your settings). Thank you.
When I work
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I am fairly flexible regarding sessions available: weekly, fortnightly, short or longer term therapy depending on your requirements.
Further information
Face-to-face: I have a private, comfortable counselling room based in the centre of Ottery St Mary.
Online: I use the online platforms Microsoft Teams, Doxy and WhatsApp for video counselling sessions.
Parking: There is free, 1-hour, public, on street parking to the front of the therapy premises and longer free parking at the nearby supermarket.
Initial contact: following initial contact, we can arrange a free, no obligation telephone or online conversation of 20 minutes to talk about your counselling needs and how best you would like to work together.
