Valerie Teller
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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
I offer psychotherapy and counselling in person, online via video conferencing and by telephone.
Based in Wimbledon, SW London, I see clients aged 18 and over on a short or longer term basis.
As an integrative therapist I use an existential approach with my clients as I believe in viewing my clients as a whole, not a cluster of symptoms. This means that I will work with you to understand how you interact with your world and where that is causing you distress. We will then explore how to change these experiences so that you can move forwards in a better way for you.
I have training in existential, humanistic person-centred, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapies, and am a qualified mindfulness practitioner. This enables me to work with clients with a wide variety of problems as I can use different ways to understand what is happening and try to help them to become unstuck.
My client work has included helping people with problems such as anxiety, including generalised anxiety disorder, depression, panic attacks, loss, including bereavement, sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect, feeling displaced, suffering from addictions in the family, redundancy, ageing and death anxiety and many other issues.
I have particular expertise in working with people living with ADHD. This may be clients who have ADHD themselves, or their parents or other family members seeking to cope and understand the condition better.
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and therefore abide by their ethical standards in my counselling work.
Training, qualifications & experience
Following several years' experience of providing psychotherapy and counselling for young people and adults of all ages, I now have my own private practice seeing adults only.
My approach to therapy is to use existential enquiry with my clients, based on the belief that we all experience life in our own unique way. By understanding each client's individual perspective I can help uncover how you have reached a point where you feel stuck or are suffering great distress. Using this knowledge we can work together to find ways to make changes in your life that will enable you to cope better with the inevitable difficulties that we all encounter.
Before setting up in private practice I worked for Wimbledon Guild Talking Therapies service, Balham Community Counselling Service, Guildford College counselling service and ChildLine.
In my previous career I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with a Top Five firm and worked in finance in the City for 20 years. I therefore have experience of working in a high pressure environment for an extended period of time, and understand the difficulties of maintaining a healthy balance with that kind of role.
I have a Masters degree in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling which includes qualification in humanistic person-centred, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapies, as well as a BSc (Hons) in Psychology.
In addition I have a Postgraduate Certificate in ADHD from the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling which is a specialist existential psychotherapy training college.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
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
I specialise in adult ADHD which has different traits and presentation from ADHD in childhood, and which is greatly misunderstood and underdiagnosed in the UK.
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£75.00 per session
Free initial telephone session
Additional information
The initial consultation is by telephone and lasts up to 30 minutes. This is free of charge and is a chance to discuss what has brought you to therapy and to see whether we both feel we might work well together.
Subsequent sessions are 50 minutes and cost £75
When I work
I am available online on weekdays during the day or in the evening. When restrictions are lifted I also offer face to face sessions in Wimbledon.
Further information
I have a high level of knowledge of adult ADHD from a practical and scientific perspective. Adult ADHD differs in its presentation and treatment requirements from childhood ADHD, and is not currently sufficiently represented in the diagnostic manuals. Clinical judgement derived from experience is necessary for the correct identification and treatment of adult ADHD, and I can work with clients to understand whether they may have the condition. This might lead to seeking a diagnosis from a psychiatrist and/or learning how to adapt to living in a way which better suits an ADHD brain. In addition I work with newly diagnosed adults to help them understand how their ADHD has been impacting them to date and what might be needed to enable them to manage better going forwards.
