Dr Niklas Serning, Existential and Child Psychotherapist, Psychologist

Training, qualifications & experience

I have spent several years working with the United Nations, where I held senior positions in UNOPS and UNFPA – primarily operational roles in complex emergencies such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sri Lanka, but also more policy related work in New York and India. I very much appreciate the efficiency and focus of the intense environments in my earlier UN career, and try to bring some of the resilience needed in that work into the therapy room.

I work in an existential phenomenological way, yet my first degrees were in CBT and psychodynamic work with adults and children and I have also done training in core process psychotherapy. I'm a doctor of existential counselling psychology and psychotherapy.

I have experience from a wide range of settings and clients, and have set up the St Matthias Park Pupil Referral Unit counselling service. I'm also active in research, and have presented and published my work at the World Congress of Existential Therapy, Society of Psychotherapy, British Psychological Society, University of Bristol, the Hermeneutic Journal and Society of Existential Analysis. I'm a member of the editorial review panel of Existential Analysis, Professional Doctorate External Examiner at Teesside University and Regent's University - University of Wales, and also sit on the ethics board for NSPC/Middlesex University.

Other areas of counselling I deal with

Existential Phenomenological exploration of meaning and values