Philip Orr
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am an approachable, perceptive counsellor and I welcome the opportunity to work with you, whether face to face, online or by phone. If you wish to work face to face then you can meet me in the quiet environment of my own home though Zoom counselling is also possible.
I work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and until the end of 2024 I am based in Northern Ireland where face to face and online work with me are both available. I can however work virtually with you if you are elsewhere and I would be very glad to do so.
I am a calm individual and I can offer you the listening skills of a thoughtful counsellor but I also possess the life-experience of someone who spent many years in such fields as teaching, community development, mediation and the arts. I hope you will feel able to bring your personal anxieties to our weekly session, whether those concerns are due to difficult relationships, legacies from the past or decisions you face today. You will be able to process some of the challenging experiences that have marked your life and, as we work together, you will have an opportunity to gain the clarity and perspective that we all need as we proceed on life's journey.
Coming to therapy for the first time can be a nervous and uncertain experience so I am happy if you wish to message me to find out more, or to phone me for a free, non-committal and exploratory chat. If further paid sessions seem like an important next step then we can plan for that.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. In the not-so-distant past, I was an English and Drama teacher, much of my career being spent in a co-educational Quaker school. I also undertook grassroots community work in some of the most conflicted communities in Northern Ireland where I chaired a province-wide community mediation body.
I gained a lot of insight during these years into post-traumatic stress so I am a counsellor who understands the value of attending to a distressing narrative, hearing it in its entirety and feeling what it is like for a fellow human being to own a painful story. My certificate in person-centred counselling has enabled me to offer my clients the kind of non-judgmental listening that supports healing.
My diploma-level training in gestalt therapy has further enabled me to perceive how the body often carries buried pain from the past, and how it is possible to work with that legacy in the present moment.
Although I respect the wholesome impact of a personal religious faith I am also very aware of how spiritual abuse can occur when religious power is misused. Misguided or ego-driven spiritual teaching always affects the emotional health of the victim. I am interested in working with clients who have experienced this kind of damage.
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£45.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Further information
I also know about the pressures that can weigh you down to the point of exhaustion if you are a teacher. As someone who has also been involved in the arts sector, I have witnessed the personal challenges that have intensified in recent times if you are an artist, performer, writer or manager in the arts.
