About me
I work with individuals and couples experiencing emotional and relationship difficulties.
Before completing my counselling studies at the University of Worcester, I spent two decades in the NHS, working in London teaching hospitals as a senior nurse in oncology. I cared for patients and their families as they received life changing diagnoses and throughout their treatment. This now informs my work with clients facing similar challenges in my role as a counsellor. Added to this is my time in the charity sector, gaining further knowledge about families under stress, pregnancy and baby loss and supporting those in the local farming community.
What is counselling for? It can be very helpful to have a regular space in which to explore what is troubling us and potentially holding us back from fully engaging with life. Our earliest relationships play a significant role in influencing the nature of the attachments we make throughout our lives. These can be an expression of family dynamics that stretch across the generations, a hidden emotional legacy that can hinder us without understanding why. As a result, there may be patterns of behaviour we repeat that prevent us from forming meaningful relationships or sabotaging the ones we have.We may be unaware of our motivations and the powerful beliefs we hold, not realising their influence on the choices we make. It might be fear of intimacy or longstanding frustration of our needs and wants that stand in the way of our personal development. Underpinning all of this is the effect of loss and absence in our lives, in all its many forms.
Change can be brought about through having the opportunity to talk to someone about such difficulties who will listen without judgement. Being fully heard and understood can be a transforming experience as you develop new self awareness and gain clarity and insight in to your thoughts and feelings.
This process can also help you to learn to live alongside those aspects of life that cannot be changed.
For couples experiencing difficulties, the opportunity to attend sessions together opens up the possibilities of improving communication and learning about the self and each other, in a way that can be a struggle to achieve in every day life.
As a member of the BACP, I adhere to its ethical framework and my practice is overseen by an experienced counselling supervisor.
Sessions It might be that you find a few sessions are sufficient to achieve what you you would like to from the work. Sometimes issues require focusing on at a greater depth and longer term work is beneficial. I see clients weekly in a local community centre, centrally located with plenty of free and reasonably priced parking available. An initial consultation is provided to help a potential client decide whether what is offered is right for them.
If you feel that this is a path you would like to take, please email me via this website.
Training, qualifications & experience
FdSc in Counselling-University of Worcester
MBACP
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
£55.00 per session
Additional information
Each session currently costs £55 for individuals and £90 for couples.
