Shona MacPherson
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This professional has no current availability for new clients. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional has no current availability for new clients. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
I work with people aged 16 years and upwards.
I offer counselling to help you bring about effective change in your life. This will include internal change - the way you think, the way you allow yourself to feel difficult feelings - as well as change in your behaviours.
The types of things people work with me on
I work with people's experience of anything a life can hold. For example - but not limited to - difficult intense feelings like sadness, depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, stress, body image struggle, low self esteem. Or life situations like relationship breakdown or breakup, boredom with life, navigating change.
I am particularly draw to work with people who have experienced childhood trauma and who have the courage to work with this in later years.
What do we actually do?
In the first session we’ll work to get a clearer picture of what’s bothering you and what you'd like to get from therapy. The assessment is part of the work and will help you gain more insight into what you are struggling with. From here we’ll make a plan together for regularity of sessions and what we are working towards.
What type of counsellor am I?
I’m an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist. (I'm currently updating this profile but as a place holder, you can read more about what this therapy is here: https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/memberarticles/exciting-new-therapy-ifs).
Prior to training in IFS my training and experience had been in both in behavioural and humanistic counselling (Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Person Centred Counselling).
I'll be led by you and what you bring. This doesn't mean I sit and nod and repeat things back at you the whole session (like the cliche from the movies). Rather I'll listen to all the parts of you that show up, helping you hear and get to know and support them too.
Getting started
Email me to arrange an initial appointment. In our first 50 minute appointment we will explore together what you are looking to work on and I'll can explain and demonstrate how I work. From here we can decide if we're be a good fit to continue to work together.
*NB If you email me and you don't hear back from me within 24 hours in the working week, please check your spam folder.
Training, qualifications & experience
Training, qualifications & experience
I originally trained and worked as a nurse and then as an aid worker overseas. I was in my early 30s when I embarked on my counselling training and I was in my early 40s when I trained as a life coach. This is my third year working in private practice as as a counsellor. My prior counselling experience was in London where I worked with a charity in Tower Hamlets called CrossRoads and a school in south London with A Place to Be.
My formal qualifications in counselling are listed below. In addition I'm also a Forest Bathing Practitioner.
Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling (Person Centred and Existential Therapy).
Thames Valley University, London. 2008-2010
Certificate in the Integration of Cognitive Behavioural Skills.
The Grove, London. 2011.
Introduction to ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).
Praxis Online. March 2020.
ACT for Depression and Anxiety Disorders.
Psychwire online. April 2020.
DBT Skills Psychwire online. April 2020.
Taking Therapy Outdoors Certificate. Centre for Natural Reflection, Hayley Marshall, PTSTA. Taking Therapy Outdoors. October 2020
ACT for Trauma Psychwire online. (June 2020).
ACT for Adolescents Psychwire online. (June 2021).
Level one and level two Internal Family Systems training through IFS UK.
Registered MemberBACP British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapist. 380820
Professional Member of Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS)
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
- Nature connection.
- Connection with values.
- Motivation.
- Making peace with your relationship with your body.
- Making peace with your relationship with food.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£50.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
£50 per 50 minute session.
When I work
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I see clients Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays 9am to 6pm. Ideally we'll find a regular time and day that fit. But I've flexibility if you work shifts.
Further information
I work in person in Inverness and also via Zoom for people who live further a field.
Some clients who live in more remote parts of the Highlands choose to do a mix of Zoom and in person sessions and this works well.
I strive to be aware of, and to challenge my own assumptions and biases. I actively seek to create spaces – both in-person and online – that are inclusive. I seek to be anti racist. I seek to be LGBTQ supportive.
