Sabine Lees

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MBACP - Children (11+), Teenagers, young Adults and Couples
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

location_on Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, SL9 9QE
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

Please note that I am working face to face again but also offer Zoom or telephone sessions.

Finding the 'right' counsellor

Finding the 'right' counsellor, 'right' for you, is a personal choice and a very important one. You want to find someone you feel comfortable with, someone you feel you can work with and trust.

Research has shown that the most significant factor determining outcome is the quality of the relationship between the counsellor and the client. So, please take your time to find the person you want to work with.

Professional qualifications and experience are of course vital, a basic essential requirement but it is the person of the counsellor, their personality, personal qualities and style that are hugely significant in building a successful collaborative counselling relationship. It might help you to ask yourself: Could this counsellor be the right 'fit' for me?

I would like to encourage you to take this first step and contact me, to find out whether we can work together.     
                                                       

Overview

I deal with a wide spectrum of issues and I have specialist training and experience working with children (11+) and young people, in bereavement care, substance misuse and with relationship problems. I work from the premise that counselling is not a prescriptive method but rather an individually attuned response to client's unique life situation.

Why might you have come to this point?

Maybe you are struggling because you feel dissatisfied with life or experience a lack of direction and don't know how to move on. Perhaps you feel distressed or low about yourself and not know why you feel the way you do.

You may have a specific issue you want to address:

  • anxiety
  • relationship issues
  • emotional abuse
  • physical and sexual abuse
  • trauma
  • working with the inner child
  • low self-esteem
  • depression, post natal depression
  • addiction
  • bereavement
  • chronic pain
  • terminal illness
  • difficult life transitions
  • bullying
  • self harming
  • body image issues etc.

                        Change is possible, change is part of life
                                          Start on the path of growth and change
                                                                      towards increased well being



        Counselling can help you:

  • understand yourself and your situation better
  • address sensitive issues you have kept hidden from others
  • work through painful experiences and past hurts
  • identify solutions and develop strategies to overcome the difficulties you are experiencing
  • pursue your needs and goals more clearly
  • articulate and communicate them more effectively
  • come to terms with difficult life situations
  • draw more effectively on your own resources
  • recover, restore and heal
  • develop more of your potential
  • feel better about yourself, your life and your future

I can offer you effective, individually tailored counselling to help you find the strength, motivation and the direction to move towards more fulfillment in your life whether in your relationships, work, family or personal life.


MORE ABOUT ME


I am a professionally qualified Person Centered Counsellor and Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist with experience in a wide range of therapeutic settings.  I offer effective long and short term therapy to individuals of all ages and backgrounds. I work with children (11+), teenagers and adults.
I offer

  • Individual counselling
  • relationship and couples counselling
  • family interventio
  • focusing instruction
  • workshops
  • training courses
  • inner child work


Clinical Experience

I work in private practice where I see clients from all walks of life, different age groups and backgrounds and a very wide range of presenting issues.

I have also worked:

  • as a counsellor and adviser for a youth agency
  • at a local secondary school
  • as a volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care, seeing bereaved individuals in their homes and at doctors' surgeries
  • at a drug and alcohol recovery service at Slough where I have counselled individuals and couples who are in recovery


Training Background and Approach to Counselling

I work from a Humanistic/Person Centered framework but integrate elements from other therapeutic approaches, if and when useful, for example cognitive re framing, solution focused, creative and systemic therapies and body awareness and focusing.

I am a Certified Focusing Professional and Focusing Trainer (International Focusing Institute, New York) and a Member of the British Focusing Association (BFA) and use focusing in my work with clients when appropriate.

My training in focusing helps me to work with the 'inner child' and childhood trauma and unresolved emotional pain to facilitate integration, recovery and restoration. Focusing works with the understanding of the body and mind as an integrated unit.


Professional Bodies

I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) which is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.

I practice within the guidelines of the BACP's Ethical Framework of Good Practice and Procedures for Professional Conduct.

I am also a member of the International Focusing Institute New York and a member of the British Focusing Association.

I have full Professional Liability Insurance and a clear enhanced Criminal Record Bureau Check.

Training, qualifications & experience

Qualifications

  • Diploma in the Theory and Practice of Counselling
  • Certificate in Counselling Skills
  • Certificate in Conselling Concepts
  • ABC accredited training: Awareness in Bereavement Care
  • OCN Certificate in Working with Families
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy
  • Certified Focusing Professional
  • Focusing Trainer


Further Training & Professional Development

I am committed to continuous professional development and actively seek to enhance my practice by attending workshops, seminars and further training and through private study. Most recently I have attended training workshops on:

'Working with families' (Lisa Mass Training)
'Working with traumatic bereavement in children' (Child Bereavement Trust)                 
'Non-violent resistance and child focused practice: practical approaches to overcoming abuse and violence' (Institute of Family Therapy)
'Bereavement 4th annual seminar, with Margret Stoebe & Henk Schut, Utrecht University, Netherlands'  (Cruse Bereavement Care)
'Motivational Interviewing with SFBT Advanced with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (2 days) (CRI Training) 
'Attachment Narrative Therapy Short Course' The Bowlby Centre, Arlene Vetere and Rudi Dallos

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                              I have specialist training and extensive experience working with:


Relationship Counselling:

I have a special interest in working with relationships. 
Relationships are central to who we are, how we feel about life and ourselves. From infancy to adulthood relationships form and shape us and are the source of much joy but also disappointment and distress and at times deep pain. Fulfilling and harmonious relationships are what most people desire but in reality this is often difficult to achieve. Working on improving, restoring and healing those important relationships can be deeply rewarding.

Couples may struggle in unsatisfying and unhappy relationships for years and not know how to improve or change the situation.  Couples counselling can help to identify the problem areas more clearly, can facilitate insight and understanding into the repetitive unhelpful patterns of relating and behaving. Couples counselling can help resolve long standing issues/grievances and pains. The counselling setting can help each partner to express and communicate their needs and aspirations better and help hear, receive and support the other more effectively.

Mediation counselling can help with the 'aftermath' of divorce and relationship breaks up:
When a marriage or relationship breaks down, particularly when children are involved, it is often experienced as extremely stressful, a time of pain and uncertainty with profound changes affecting many different areas of life.  Mediation counselling may help you to cope with this situation better, may help all involved to communicate more respectfully and constructively and help lay the foundation for new relationship formations.

Children and young people often suffer silently not being able to express sufficiently how they feel and what they are thinking. Mediation counselling may help to hear the silent members and facilitate the expression of difficult emotions, encouraging and working towards a process of acceptance and resolution.

"To be human means to live a life immersed in social relationships." 
W.B. Pearce

"No man is an island, untire to himself "
John Donne


Teenagers and young adults:

I have worked in an agency setting and at a school with children (11+) and young people on a wide range of issues, from bullying to depression, stress, anxiety to issues of self worth and body-image, anger and relationship problems.  This broad experience helps me to understand the external demands and pressures young people face and also the physical, emotional and mental developmental processes and changes they go through. It can be a stressful and confusing time.

Problems can develop and escalate quickly and when bottled up can turn into destructive behaviour, - directed towards oneself or others.  It is so important to address anything as early as possible. Young people need our respect and support and need to feel someone listens and takes their concerns seriously. My experience working with young people enables me to understand these very specific circumstances and I am able to offer a supportive and non-judgemental environment for the young person to open up in.

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.” 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)


Bereavement:

I have gained in-depth experience and further training working in the field of bereavement care and loss and I am able to provide support if you are struggling with a loss and the impact this has on your life.  Loss also includes the loss of a relationship, a marriage, a pet, your health, redundancy, retirement, growing old or difficult life transitions.

Any loss can be experienced in a similar way to bereavement, as can any life changing situation and can leave you feeling depressed, tearful, not able to cope, without motivation, unable to see a way forward. You may feel you 'can not let go', you may feel stuck as if 'going round in circles'…..

How the experience of loss is affecting you will depend on many different factors and is unique to each individual. Sometimes 'past' pains and losses may surface and may make the process of grief and adjustment more complicated and difficult.  You may feel overwhelmed and confused, unable to make sense of it all.

I fully appreciate that any loss can have a significant effect on many, if not all areas of your life. Often new purposes and meaning will need to be negotiated and a new sense of identity and belonging discovered. I can offer you the specialist support you may need at this time and help you work through this process of adjustment.


Addiction:

Many people experience problems with addictive and compulsive behaviour and it is often hidden and kept secret.  This secrecy can foster feelings of guilt or shame. This can make you feel lonely and isolated. You may feel you can't be the person you want to be or could be.

If you suffer from any form of addictive or compulsive behaviour it is essential for you to experience the total acceptance of you as a person, to be able to address issues of shame, guilt, lack of self-compassion, low self esteem and any underlying emotional, possibly traumatic experiences or unmet needs. 

Building a trusting, mutually respectful and collaborative relationship with your counsellor is so very important if you want to be able to fully explore those areas.

I am very aware of the dynamics of this life style and may be able to help you to find a way out for yourself.  Addictive and compulsive behaviour can present in many different forms: whether it is alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, hoarding, sex, gambling or computer games.  As part of this process we would look at the habitual patterns of thought and behaviour which keep you locked in a cycle of addictive behaviour.


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  • I work in private practice: Canopy Counselling - Sabine Lees MBACP

  • For a number of years I have worked with young people as a school counsellor and at a Youth Agency in High Wycombe and as a bereavement support worker and telephonist for Cruse Bereavement Care.

  • I have been involved with a Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service at Slough where I have counselled individuals and couples who are in recovery.

  • Certified Focusing Professional  (Focusing Institute New York)
  • Focusing Trainer
  • I offer Focusing workshops and training courses

Member organisations

BACP
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP)

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

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
Accredited Register Scheme

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.

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

Areas of counselling I deal with

Other areas of counselling I deal with

Difficult life transitions, menopause, redundancy, retirement, 'empty nest' experience etc.

Therapies offered

Fees

£67.00 per session

Concessions offered for

  • check_circle Low income
  • check_circle Keyworkers
  • check_circle OAPs
  • check_circle Students
  • check_circle Trainee counsellors
  • check_circle Unemployed

Additional information

Counselling sessions are 50-55 minutes long
charged at:

  • Individual sessions from £67
  • Couples £75
  • Zoom and telephone sessions £50
  • Families (90 minutes) £105
  • Initial focusing instruction (1-2-1) £50
  • Subsequent 30 minute focusing sessions £35
  • Subsequent 30-40 telephone focusing sessions £30



Booking procedure and payment options

Once a booking has been arranged I will require the full amount to confirm the booking a minimum of 48 hours prior to the session. 

Methods of payment:

  • Direct bank transfer: I will pass on my bank details once an appointment has been arranged.
  • Paypal invoice or card payment (this will add 5% to the bill) usually for first booking
  • Cheques or cash can be send or delivered to the following address: Bodyworks Clinic, 15, High Street, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9QE)

I may at times be able to offer a concession at my discretion. Please feel free to talk to me about this.

The initial session will be charged but with no obligation to continue!

I will require a minimum of 24 hour cancellation notice! Please note that I will retain the £30/£35 deposit as a cancellation fee in case of a late cancellation.

When I work

I work flexible hours, including evenings and Saturdays on request. Appointments by arrangement. Just call or email me. Look forward to hearing from you.

Further information


I work flexible hours, evenings and on Saturdays.
Appointments are made by arrangement.

I also offer counselling in German

I would like to encourage you to take this first step:
Contact me and we can arrange an initial meeting.

Bodyworks Clinic, 15 High Street, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, SL9 9QE

Type of session

In person
Online
Phone

Types of client

Children (0-12)
Young people (13-17)
Young adults (18-24)
Adults (25-64)
Older Adults (65+)
Couples
Families

Additional languages

German

Online platforms

Zoom