Polly Amies
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Hello there and welcome to my therapy page. I'm Polly, here to offer you a warm and compassionate counselling relationship. I would like to help you find new ways to process difficult feelings, thoughts or experiences. Working together, we can explore coping strategies for the challenges you experience in a safe, empowering and confidential space.
How can I help you?
I work as a psychotherapeutic counsellor & educator in two calm and relaxing private settings and educational spaces.
We can also work online together including the telephone. I will meet with you where you feel able to start and feel most comfortable to continue.
Every client is unique, and I am sensitive to respecting my clients coping mechanisms. I have decades of trauma informed experience working with health and care services for adults and children. Empathy and non - judgement are central to my approach.
I am not here to intrude but rather to listen to you fully and explore your emotions collaboratively with you as the lead. We will work to clarify and identify your feelings which will provide us with valuable insight to improve your well being.
We have all experienced emotional difficulties in our lives at some point and I am very comfortable working with a diverse range of clients and their issues honourably and sensitively. I can help guide you through the process of finding answers and balance again, which can be transformative and freeing. Studying mindfulness for many years I can offer calming well-being skills along side the therapeutic conversation. Each meeting there is always the opportunity to explore playful creative methods to access your inner world.
I offer time framed counselling for people who wish to focus on a specific problem or single significant life event. People often come for counselling after a life transition such as a relationship breakdown or bereavement. Open ended psychotherapeutic work generally takes place over a longer period of time for the more complex and and long standing difficulties. This deeper long term work is likely to cover many aspects of your life from child hood, personal history to your emotional relationships and beyond.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss how therapy could help you or to set up a first no charge conversation together
Working with Children and Young People 13 -18
I am also passionate about working with children and young people and believe early interventions can have a hugely positive outcome for the future adult. I have had the privilege to work in a variety of settings with children and young people in nursery, primary and secondary schools. I have worked with a wide range of issues and needs such as neurodiversity, cared for children, life limiting illness, bullying, grief and abuse. I am dynamic and caring in my approach and always child or young person led. I have studied many useful theories such as non violent communication, attachment theory and creativity as a communication healing process. From working in SEN Residential children homes, schools and young offender units - across support, education and creative roles - I am able to adapt to a specific new set of therapeutic needs with each child or young person.
With over 30 years experience of working with young people, children and their families - I am always happy to talk through how counselling could help bring about positive growth and change.
Drop me an email if you would like to book a first conversation or meeting as a family or parent carer. My work with young people and their support networks is confidential yet educational and inclusive. We will approach the therapy process collaboratively to promote positive change and wrap around support for all.
Get in touch
I offer a free 30 minute initial meeting for all either on line or in person. Please send me an email with any thoughts about how counselling can help you and how I work. I really look forward to hearing from you.
Testimonials
“I have had such a lifechanging experience with Polly as my therapist. She is so easy to talk to and really knowledgeable about the mind and trauma. I have been able to reshape old belief systems into a new realistic healthy updated ones. Each session left me feeling supported and a bit lighter. Polly helped me develop a compassionate way to think and feel about my mental health with self care skills I have never had"
"Polly has helped me re-evaluate the way in which I view myself and my interactions with others. The sessions are kind and thought provoking. Polly was really there with me every step of the process. I was able to open up in a way that looking back now seemed impossible. Having this new way of thinking about my past present and future has brought me so much confidence"
"I would definitely recommend Polly for anyone on the spectrum. We started off with phone calls. Polly reassured me she wanted to worked with me to create a therapy space where I could feel comfortable. When I felt confident to meet in person we would sit side by side with minimum eye contact and talk together. You can take your own sensory support items and Polly has a selection to use and explore in the sessions. I slowly started to grow confidence in myself and learned coping strategies I now use every day. I will never forget you and the sweet, gentle cat friends"
Training, qualifications & experience
- Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling for Adults
- Advanced Diploma in Counselling Children & Young People
- National Diploma in Social Sciences
- Individual Member of the British Association for counsellors and Psychotherapists
- School counsellor Training @ Place2Be
- Member of BACP Children, Young People & Families
- CPCAB Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills
- NCFE Level 2 Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health
- Level 3 Support Work for Primary and Secondary Schools
- Qualified Mental Health Coach for children and adults
- Healing with Art Therapy & Creative Practice
- Recent personal development courses: Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders; All Sorts - LGBTQ+ Inclusivity; NSPCC Speak Out Stay Safe ;Understanding Autism ; Neurodiversity and Mindfulness; Annual National Autistic Conference 2024
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
Photos & videos
Fees
£50.00 per session
Free initial telephone or online session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
I offer concession spaces for anyone on a low income. My fees are set on a sliding scale depending on your financial circumstances.
Please drop me an email if you are considering counselling and would like to set up an initial meeting. We can discuss fee’s and time frames and any questions you may have.
When I work
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I currently work in person and on line from two wonderfully therapeutic spaces. Dividing my week between Portslade and SW8 London, both a few minutes walk from public transport/parking
Further information
My vocational training has been around all aspects of mental health for young people and adults. This has included a broad spectrum of issues from abuse and addiction to living with chronic illness.
I also have a huge amount of experience working with pregnancy. loss and birth. I am just as passionate about parenting as I am end of life care.
I am a strong believer in continued personal and professional development to enrich my talking therapy skills. I am currently studying mindfulness for children and young people. I hold an enhanced DBS to work with children, young people and vulnerable adults. I have yearly safeguarding training with West Sussex county council and the NSPCC.
