Dr Paul Hapney
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am a Chartered Psychologist with many years of clincial experience, coupled with a passion for my work. My therapy centres upon the desire to help people to make sense of their problems within the full context of their lived experiences, in order to empower them to create more fulfilling lives.
I strive to work in flexible, client friendly ways. Meeting on a weekly basis or less frequently, I offer short term counselling to people experiencing temporary emotional distress such as can be triggered by life upheaval and change, relationship problems, or losses of various kinds. I also work longer term with people suffering with chronic problems such as being affected by persistent stress, anxiety, or anger, recurrent bouts of depression, debilitating low self esteem, or repeated relationship problems.
Sometimes people do not know what type of problem they have: only that something is wrong, they do not feel right, their life does not feel right, something is missing, relationships are not fulfilling, or they find themselves engaging in habitual unhealthy behaviours. Meeting in a way that works for my clients, with time and commitment these harder to name difficulties can also be understood and overcome.
Besides my private practice, I worked for many years in NHS settings, including roles as Senior Psychology Practitioner and Specialist MBT Practitioner, offering individual and group psychotherapy to people experiencing complex emotional problems, including personality disorder. I enjoy taking an active role in continuous professional development (through courses, conferences, books, etc) and see my development as a practitioner as ongoing.
My Style of Practice
I specialise in online therapy. I transferred to working online during lockdown, finding this to be an equally effective way of meeting when compared to face to face, with added convenience for my clients - who don't have to worry about the limitations of their locality in terms of therapist choice, or travel time.
I prioritise the gradual formation of an honest and open, trusting therapeutic relationship, from where I assist a person in their efforts to really understand what they are experiencing inside, beneath their observable behaviours. My aims are to help my clients to articulate just what it is that they are feeling (which feelings constitute 'bad' or 'awful'; clarify how they are understanding ('interpreting') events; to bring into focus limiting or defensive patterns of relating to, or being with, others, including those closest to them; and to clarify the nature of their relationship to themselves. It is from this place of fuller understanding that change is then possible, should a person wish to engage in the difficult process of changing their lives.
Counselling Psychology is based upon an approach that adopts a holistic attitude to people problems, seeing them as emerging from the many contexts of people's lives: these include ongoing close relationships, formative and developmental experiences, social/cultural background, issues of gender and sexuality, and neurological endowment. The strength of being a psychologist in private practice is that it allows me to hold this broad understanding of the nature of people's 'problems in living,' whilst selecting my interventions to meet the needs of any particular client.
The breadth and length of my training enables me to draw upon differing psychological models to suit the character, problems, and needs of an individual client. This approach contrasts with both a standard counsellor or psychotherapy training wherein the practitioner normally focusses on one main model and also the 'treatment' medical model approach used in health care settings where patients are offered a single module of therapy (such as counselling or CBT).
Getting Started
I believe that for therapy to be effective you need to feel:
- confident that you can (with time) develop high levels of trust in your therapist
- that your therapist has the ability to understand you at depth
- that your therapist can offer you a type of therapy that makes sense to you.
Booking up an initial consultation session will allow you to judge as to whether or not you feel that I can offer you these things. This initial meeting is full session in length and, given that its therapeutic focus is upon assisting you to deepen your self-understanding, I charge my normal session rate.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a British Psychological Society accredited Chartered Psychologist (membership no. 234464 - which you can check at the BPS website).
My core training in Counselling Psychology over the course of five years involved the gaining of a minimum of 450 hours of supervised, clinical practice whilst using specific models of therapy. (To put this in perspective, a typical counselling training spans two years and requires a minimum of 100-120 hours of clinical practice.) I have accrued thousands of hours of practice since qualifying. I attend continuing professional development training conferences and courses, regularly read relevant literature, continuously aiming to enhance my knowledge and skills for providing the best quality therapy.
I have a lot of experience of working with the three most common and researched models of therapy - humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). I also have knowledge and experience of delivering other exciting and effective psychological approaches, including mindfulness, mentalization based therapy (MBT), and group therapy. More recently, I have developed a strong interest in the evolutionary and neurological underpinnings of experiencing that modern scientific technologies is enabling.
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
British Psychological Society
The HCPC are an independent, UK-wide health regulator. They set standards of professional training, performance and conduct for 16 professions.
They keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards, and they take action if registered health professionals fall below those standards. They were created by a piece of legislation called the Health Professions Order 2001.
Registration means that a health professional meets national standards for their professional training, performance and conduct.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£45.00 - £55.00
Concessions offered for
Additional information
My standard fee is £55 per session. I offer a concession to people on low income/unemployed. Sessions last up to an hour. If you have looked around at therapy options, you will be aware that accessing therapy can be very expensive. One of my priorities as a practitioner is to make therapy readily accessible and affordable. Working online helps me to achieve this aim.
When I work
I offer sessions mornings, afternoons, and evenings throughout the week.
Further information
The easiest way to contact me initially is via email (the messaging service on this website). Alternatively, you can also call/text me on my mobile. You will likely need to leave a message as I keep my phone on silent when I am working - let me know your name, number, and convenient times to call you. Please feel free to email/text me any further questions.
