Sarah Metianu
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This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
There are many reasons you might have for coming for counselling; whatever yours are, I hope to offer you the opportunity to explore your thoughts and feelings in a non-judgemental, safe and supportive setting. I've had counselling myself at many difficult times in my life and so appreciate its value, as well as the importance of finding the right counsellor for you, and at the right time.
Counselling is a collaborative process and I believe that my role as your counsellor is to support and work with you as you begin to explore, to be curious about and come to understand better the different aspects of your life. Counselling can help you in managing your current situation and look at new ways of coping, but can also give fresh insight, a new perspective, deeper understanding and increasing self-acceptance on your past life experiences, and how and why they might continue to impact you today.
My approach is integrative - which means I work within a variety of therapeutic approaches. I believe each one of us is wonderfully unique and so tailor my approach to meet your individual needs, drawing on elements that I feel may resonate or help you most. My aim is to work with you, listening closely to what you say and how you say it, attending to your specific needs, so that you get the most out of your sessions.
I also offer sandplay therapy - sandplay uses a box filled with sand where toy figures and symbols are placed by you to create scenes or miniature worlds. These may surprise you as they can reflect and give a visual representation to some of your unconscious inner thoughts, struggles, and concerns. It's gentle, yet working symbolically in this way can also be extremely powerful.
Therapy isn't about giving advice and I won't tell you what to do. Instead I will offer you an opportunity to explore your thoughts and feelings at depth, and I hope to provide you with an unbiased, non-judgemental and reflective perspective. My hope for you is that you develop more insight, understanding and compassion for yourself and your situation, and from this place make your own decisions about your life and its direction.
I have several years' experience of working with adults facing a number of difficulties and concerns, and offer both short or long-term counselling.
I offer an initial free 30-minute meeting either in my counselling room at Castle Consulting Rooms, 2 Goldington Road, near Bedford town centre, via phone or online via MS Teams. This is to see how it might feel for us to work together, for you to ask any questions you may have, and to explore your hopes for therapy. Please contact me if you would like to arrange this.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Level 5 Postgraduate Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling (CPCAB)
- Certificate in Couple/Relationship Therapy, accredited at Level 5 by COSRT (College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists)
- Certificate in Psychosexual Therapy (The Grove)
- Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (ABC)
- BACP Certificate of Proficiency, Accredited Voluntary Register
- Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills (ABC)
- Level 2 Award in Counselling Concepts (ABC)
- Level 2 Understanding Substance Misuse (CPCAB)
- BA Hons: Fine Art
Continuing Professional Development includes:
- Certificate in Body Psychotherapy: Developing embodied relational resonance (in progress during 2024-25)
- Certificate in Advanced Emotional Regulation Skills
- Certificate in Integrative Sandplay
- Experiential Psychodynamic Bridging Course
- Advanced Child Exploitation Training
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
£60.00 per session
Free initial in-person, telephone or online session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
- I offer both short and long-term counselling
- sessions are 50-minutes long
- £60 per session
- (£65 fee increase from 1/4/2025)
- student counsellor's reduced rate of £45
- I have two low-cost concessionary spaces
- payment can be made by bank transfer, via PayPal or in cash
Free initial 30-minute consultation
I offer an initial no obligation face-to-face meeting in my therapy room, an online meeting or telephone call. There is no charge for this.
I feel that it's really important for you to feel comfortable with me as your choice of counsellor and with this in mind I offer a 30-minute consultation to see how it might feel for us to be in a room and work together, to tell me a bit about yourself, ask any questions you may have, and to explore your hopes for therapy.
When I work
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I have a private practice at Castle Consulting Rooms, Room 12, 2 Goldington Road, near the centre of Bedford where I work from on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8am.
Further information
Over the first few sessions I will usually take a detailed personal history with you, exploring your early years, as well as how you live now.
We'll look at your life now quite holistically, for example including how you sleep and look after yourself generally, what gives you joy, the important relationships in your life, and how you would like to live your life going forward.
Exploring your past, we may do a timeline or a family tree together, mapping out the important people and events across your life, as we begin to consider how the back then might be impacting you, and your relationships, in the here and now.
This gives quite a structured start to our work together but I feel this is useful. My hope it that it helps you to relax and begin to feel comfortable and safe with me, it provides me with a broad overview so together we can better understand how you experience your life, and it allows both of us to begin to reflect on what our work together might look like.
