Sonia Witney

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Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

Brighton BN1 & Hove BN3
Available for new clients
Available for new clients

This professional is available for new clients.

About me

I am an experienced integrative counsellor. I completed my degree in Psychology with First Class Honours at the University of Surrey in 1996. I subsequently trained as a counsellor and have now been counselling for over fifteen years.

In essence I aim to offer you a safe and supportive space where together we can explore whatever difficulties you are experiencing. I may offer you feedback on what I observe and any patterns of behaviour or thought processes that might be hindering you. This can be helpful and may give you some insights about yourself and how sometimes experiences from your past might be affecting you today.

If you are feeling stuck and seeking more meaning and purpose in your life together we can look at ways to develop inner resources and facilitate change.

Counselling can be helpful in gaining acceptance over past events and be a reparative healing experience resulting in feeling more present and positive about your life, and developing a deeper connection with yourself, the most important relationship you will have in your life.

Training, qualifications & experience

I believe in a holistic approach whereby counselling can have a beneficial effect on the body's physical health as well as helping cognitively and emotionally. My postgraduate training has included a one year course on the embodied therapist.

I have also studied a one year postgraduate course on attachment and I have a particular interest in how our attachment styles, which are formed in childhood, can influence our "choices", both conscious and unconscious, in our adult relationships.

I have also done extensive training in grief work, participating in grief circles, and life, death, rebirth cycles, and transitions in life.

I have an interest in nervous system regulation techniques, “un-conditioning” what society has taught us, letting go and leading more authentic lives. This can arise often out of a big life event or radical change which triggers this process but it always involves courage and I aim to provide support and walk alongside you as you navigate this.

I have worked with people with the following difficulties:

  • Grief and loss including the loss of a loved one, the end of a significant relationship, miscarriage, stillbirth, fertility issues, and unexpected loss such as suicide
  • Loss of health
  • Cumulative/complicated grief including collective grief experiences e.g. COVID or grief of environmental issues
  • Grief of unmet needs e.g. childless not by choice
  • People who grew up with a parent who did not meet their needs 
  • Neurodiversity, particularly partners of those diagnosed with Autism or Asperger's
  • People who identify as HSP (Highly Sensitive Person)
  • Life transitions e.g. menopause, empty nest syndrome, separation and divorce
  • Loneliness
  • Finding meaning and purpose in life
  • Boundary work and sense of self

The counselling I offer can be long or shorter term depending on your needs.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by its Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.

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

Fees

£55.00 per session

Additional information

I offer a complimentary thirty-minute phone or Zoom call. Please email me and we will arrange the best time to have this call.

I offer an initial session for £25 (50 minute session). This is an opportunity for us to meet each other, to explore your expectations of counselling, and to consider how we may best work together. It is also a chance for you to ask any questions or discuss any anxieties you may have about counselling, and to help you decide if I am the right therapist for you.

Each fifty-minute counselling session costs £55.

I also offer a prepaid block of eight sessions for £400.

When I work

Flexible working times in Brighton & Hove locations.

Brighton Consulting Rooms, 18A Clermont Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 6SG

The Palmeira Practice, 40 Wilbury Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 3JP

Type of session

In person
Online

Types of client

Adults
Older adults

Online platforms

Zoom