Michaela Gaffney
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Welcome. Our journey will begin with us. You and me establishing a therapeutic relationship. I am not the expert you are. I do however, to help this process have 12 years mental health experience. Starting from grass roots as a support worker within the rehabilitation service for individuals with long term enduring mental health issues, such as paranoid schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder to then training and qualifying as counsellor with extensive Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness based stress reduction experience. I am able combine all of these together in a more person centred integrative approach, to support you. My natural approach is one of openness and honesty.
This has always served me well with both adults and children. I am finding that my previous experience as a nursery nurse and school counsellor is supporting my more playful and inquisitive approach with under 16.
Training, qualifications & experience
I started my career in nursery nursing and after moving to London and starting a family, I was working in a very busy GP surgery in the heart of north London. I then embarked on a psychology and education degree as I still wanted to use my skills with children. After working within a Pupil referral Unit after University as a family we relocated back to Kent. I then began my career within mental health services. First as a support worker, then as a member of the DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy) consultation team and then on to train as psychological wellbeing practitioner in Thanet for 2 years, whilst writing various wellbeing group programmes and increasing access to psychological support for new Mums in Margate.
I returned to Secondary Mental health services for a while as a Vocational Advisor, finding placements and education opportunities for individuals with long term mental health difficulties to enable them to support themselves with my support. After this I was asked to train as a Hi intensity CBT therapist for a year. This for me was a challenging year as there was significant loss within my family and the intensity and fast pace of this specific service did not completely sit well with me personally. I gained invaluable experience and my recovery rates were exceptional but I have now found a more open, non prescriptive model of therapy, with the choice of more sessions to suit the individual feels more genuine and all in a kinder approach. I can now take all of this valuable experience forward and use this with in our sessions.
In the last two years I have been in 3 services and have been running mindfulness sessions. 2 of the services I have been attending our community counselling services for individuals that need psychological support but may not quite fit the services recommended by the GP. We offer longer term therapy and do not turn individuals away. We one way or another find the appropriate support for them. I feel this has helped me decide that this is a much more suited approach for me and also for lots of individuals. A non-judgemental creative approach. I have also been a school counsellor for 18 months for primary school children and have embraced this fully and thank these individuals for reminding me how fantastic it is to be in the presence of these little humans.
2000-2005 BSc (Hon) Applied Psychology and Education
2008 Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills Group Training
2009 Behavioural Family Therapy - basic Skills Training
2010 Postgraduate Certificate Psychological Wellbeing Practice (low intensity CBT)
2011 Mindfulness Based Teacher Training
2013 Mindfulness and Neuroscience Applications
2014 Specialist Teacher Training in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
2015-2016 Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (High intensity)
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Anxiety Disorders
Consolidation of Fundamentals of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Fundamentals of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
2017-2019 Therapeutic Counselling
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.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£40.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
Free initial telephone consultation
£40
