About me

Welcome, lovely unique person l'd like to meet! I admire your decision to seek support- it takes courage. I provide compassionate support tailored to a spectrum of challenges, including depression, anxiety, stress and relationship difficulties and ADHD- but you don't have to have it to benefit from my approach. Your individual needs are the key to what you'll want from sessions. You may want to change some behaviours, so we focus on your feelings and needs that may be driving them. Focussing on them, can help develop understanding, leading to natural evolving change- enhanced if needed, by solution based psychological approaches.

I specialise in helping you through difficult situations, that may have parallels in your earlier life. My training equips me to support you emotionally, while understanding traditional psychological theory, enhanced and grounded by modern neuroscience. I can help you to see and understand human dynamics, assisting with practical approaches if you want them.

Your life may feel upsetting, frightening, enraging- and often confusing. I'd like you to bring those very difficult things, which you may be surprised to find, when shared with another, can be paths to gateways to transformation. I'd love to support you and warmly invite you to get in touch. We can walk together on your journey to healing and growth.

I am a down to earth, fully trained counsellor and psychotherapist. I do not have a ‘one size fits all’ style- there is no pressure; you can simply be you and we can just talk. I work integratively, freely and ethically with my trainings and would love to accompany you on your journey towards wholeness, working with you in the way that is uniquely right for you.

My background:

I originate from Cornwall. As a young adult, I trained and as a graphic designer in Devon. I have worked as a commercial artist but moved to retraining and helping others make art. I discovered that I wanted to help people in a more in depth way and was moved to retrain as a counsellor. I qualified in Stroud, Gloucestershire in 2006 and have since then enjoyed helping a wide range of people from all walks of life get to a better psychological and emotional place.

About counselling and psychotherapy

You may have already had an experience of counselling. If not, counselling might be described as a type of support and listening where the focus is on you and how you experience things. It can be particularly helpful at times of loss, change and upheaval when things feel confusing. I will listen carefully and give you space to help you see things more clearly.

Life challenges can make you feel stressed. Over the long term, this might have left you suffering from anxiety and depression, which can sometimes be difficult to tell people about in case they worry. Another problem can be that (meaning well) they tell you that 'everyone feels like that sometimes'.

You might resort to things that give you temporary respite, such as eating too much or too little, or the wrong type of food. You might feel so bad about what you ate that you purge or exercise or feel so bad that you get lower- and then the cycle starts. Or you might turn to smoking, drinking or using drugs, prescribed or otherwise. Sometimes you might find you buy things to help you feel better or find yourselves in unhappy relationships. There are any numbers of ways we try and get ourselves out of one painful emotional state in an attempt to get us into a calmer one. The problem is that then these behaviours can give us more problems- the very thing that was meant to help then burdens us with something else. Counselling can really help because together we look at what the behaviour was treating. Knowing that opens up more flexible possibilities.

I am trained to listen to you

Without getting in your way. It is about you having the space to be able to say what you need, hear yourself and importantly have someone listening to you, focusing on your well-being.

You might choose to come for counselling because something is happening that is making life particularly hard. Things might be happening that you don't want or there may be things you want to happen that don't.

You may have been struggling on alone. Hoping that things might work out on their own. You might be coming to the conclusion that you have tried everything you can think of and you’ve run out of options. You might be exhausted by trying to work it out on your own and are ready for a friendly face and some warm support.

You have made it this far

In spite of everything. You have done the hardest part. I have the deepest respect for anyone who decides they would like counselling. The next step, to come to counselling requires just one more bit of the same courage that got you this far. Take heart, you no longer have to try and work this out all on your own. We can work together.

I am here to support you - together we can think about what is best for you.

You are very welcome to email me to book a session or for a free 20-minute chat.

Please ring: 07595 292129 or email me.

I will be pleased to hear from you.

Training, qualifications & experience

Counsellor: (Dip.couns.) (2006) Stroud, Glos.

Currently: psychotherapist in training. Finalist at master’s degree level, Minster Centre, London.

MBACP: I am a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.

CoP: Certificate of proficiency for the BACP register.
MNCS (Acc.): I am an accredited member of the National Counselling Society.
Please feel free to check my name on these registers.

Arts:
B.A. (Hons) Art in Context (Community and public arts training) 1997, Bristol.
Graphic design (Dip) 1982, South Devon College.

Boundaries & Ethics:

As a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP), I work to their ethics and standards. I am registered on the BACP voluntary register, holding the certificate of proficiency: 05974, which you may check. Please do ask if there is anything you'd like to know more about this. I am also fully insured and have regular clinical supervision.

Experience / activity in the counselling field:

Currently:

Private practice based in Holborn, East Central London

Previously:

Providing therapy at Camden Carers.
Private practice based in Gospel Oak.
Motherhood, the (Un)Speakable, (Un)Spoken. Supporting art project for mothers' wellbeing at Kentish town Health Centre.
Training student counsellors.
Psychotherapist for the 'Thyme Project', supporting women who had suffered gender-based violence and affected by the Criminal Justice System.
Supported a group of women survivors of Domestic Abuse to write about their experiences for Community Radio.
Counsellor for 'Women Out Working', an ecological project supporting vulnerable women working on a community allotment and gardening / tending public green spaces.
Provided therapy for Survivors of Child Abuse (was known as SOCA, Glos).
Worked with mental health and addictions, as well as providing generic counselling.
I also have undertaken extra training and have experience of working with the following issues, or supporting those who care for those with difficulties:
Child abuse and it's long-term impacts, including complex trauma, anxiety, depression and shame.
Domestic Abuse and complex trauma.
Mental Health.
Borderline Personality Disorders (complex trauma).
Dementia.
Drug & alcohol issues (Including Steroids).

Further training and offering extra skills in:

Therapeutic Creativity.
Psychodrama.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Transactional Analysis.
Group work.

Personal Approach:

I have listed my training and skills in order to let you know that I can help with a broad range of issues. Much of my work has been with individuals who have suffered child abuse and complex trauma. However, in some ways, those who have suffered overt abuse and trauma can sometimes find it easier to pin point the source of their difficulties. You might come from loving and well meaning or even very healthy families and may feel a bit worried about blaming the people who have brought you up and who you love. Counselling can help look at things not to apportion blame but to take a fresh look at things from a different angle to see how things might be changed for the better.

Member organisations

Registered / Accredited

Accredited register membership

Areas of counselling I deal with

Other areas of counselling I deal with

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Bereavement, inc sudden unnatural death / suicide
Childhood issues
Boarding School issues
Sleep difficulties
Menopause
Family
Abuse and Trauma
Addictions
Low self-confidence
Loneliness: Isolation / alienation
Gender & sexual diversity

Therapies offered

Photos & videos

Fees

Additional information

My standard fee is currently £65.00 per 50 minute session.

I may offer 75 minutes according to need.

Concessions: My low cost practise is currently full.

When I work

I have spaces at various different times to suit -including early mornings and some weekends

Further information

www.sorchacounselling.co.uk

In process of updating. Please bear with me!

Published articles

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