Neil Hepworth
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I offer wisdom, compassion, warm acceptance, and a non-judgmental safe space for you to explore your concerns. As a result, you may discover better coping strategies, develop resilience, and find your own meaning to affirm who you are at your best and so move towards greater wholeness and psychological maturity. As well as helping you in what may be the initial cause of you seeking counselling, I am interested in empowering you to use it as a turning point towards personality growth, greater purpose, and satisfaction in your life.
I have a lot of experience using counselling skills and therapeutic communication in supporting the existential /spiritual aspects of being human when facing a life-threatening or chronic illness, baby loss, bereavement and mental health challenges. I aim in my counselling to empower change, enhance resilience and encourage personal growth psychologically and spiritually. I can help you in making sense of what is going on, accepting what can’t be changed, working on what can be changed and finding new hope to take you forward.
As a Person Centered Counsellor, I hold the belief that I am not the expert on your life- you are! My expertise is in creating an effective, safe, authentic relationship with you that allows you to flourish. Being person centred means I focus on your agenda and listen with empathy and compassion in an accepting way without judgment. By hearing you with focused attention in this way and interjecting with you I seek to empower you to find your own solutions and to grow in your resilience, self regard and clarity of your unique value and purpose.
I will also draw on other therapeutic models where appropriate such as Psychodynamic because childhood experiences and attachments to significant others, dreams and unconscious affects can be important. Cognitive behaviour insights such as weighing up the evidence to challenge and change our self-talk, exploring alternative possibilities which are less catastrophic than we are fearing, can help with anxiety. Existential therapy with its drawing on facing life in its harsh reality, squaring up to our mortality and death anxiety, resulting in making meaning and exploring how to live life well, are also useful.
I promise you respect, empathy, and impartial help whatever your background, lifestyle, beliefs, ethnicity, or sexuality. I am registered with the British Association of Counsellors & Psychotherapists and The Association of Christians in Counselling and work within their ethical codes and standards. No religious worldview is assumed, imposed, or required to receive Therapeutic Counselling which is universally recognised and universally applied. However, if you want counselling that is sympathetic to Christian values, beliefs and identity, I can offer that upon specific request. However, I never impose my faith on you and I am experienced in helping people of all faiths and none and from many diverse backgrounds. Please visit my website for more details.
Training, qualifications & experience
MA Contextual Theology; BA (Hons) Contextual Theology;
Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling; Level 3 Diploma in Counselling Skills; Certificate in Counselling Theory;
Certificate in Awareness of Mental health; Mental Health first Aid; Advanced mental health training for Community leaders;
Advanced Communication Skills in Cancer Care; Postgrad Spiritual Support in Palliative Care; Post Grad Multidisciplinary approach to Pain control in Palliative Care.
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.
The Association of Christian Counsellors and Linked Professions is a professional body representing and setting standards for Christian counselling and care in the UK. The organisation is made up of various different membership categories, including Counsellor and Accredited, and requires all members working as counsellors to undertake Continuous Professional Development on a regular basis.
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
£50.00 per session
Additional information
I give a full 60 minutes and not just the so-called Therapy hour (50 mins). The first session up to 75 mins for no extra cost to allow time to discuss the working agreement/contract as required by ethical & professional demands.
I prefer payment by bank transfer and ask for £20 as a deposit to confirm the booking and the remaining £30 either in advance or at the time of the session.
Further information
The people I support often remark on my kindness and ability to bring them a sense of peace. Do not feel you have to struggle on your own. Allow me to come alongside and share your burden and help you move towards hope.
