ABOUT ME

Training

I trained as an integrative counsellor on the post graduate diploma programme at the Minster Centre in London. The training included learning of the main traditions of psychotherapeutic and counselling theory principally, humanistic, psychodynamic, the body and transpersonal.

I was attracted to the integrative approach as it acknowledges the part that each of these traditions can play in the development of our understanding of what causes human difficulties and unhappiness, and what facilitates change. My personal belief is that no single tradition can lay claim to a complete and true picture. I found the very experientially based training encouraged me to consider how our whole selves are made up - mind, body and spirit, ourselves as individuals as well as being with another or in a group.

I consider some of my other previous education and training as providing important additional knowledge and experience – these include a philosophy degree (BA Hons) from York University and a qualification (LRAM) as a violin teacher from the Royal Academy of Music in London.

I trained and started practising as a counsellor in the second part of my working life and as a result I also bring my own previous life experience to the work.

I am a registered member (MBACP) with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and my register number is 322599.

Experience

As well as working in my own counselling practice I have worked with young people in an educational institution, the homeless through a counselling service at a charity and a low-cost therapy service. The people I saw in these settings were experiencing a variety of difficulties including depression, anxiety, addictions, obsessions and compulsions, anger, rage, shame, grief,  suicidal thought, hearing voices, and the troubles that are often associated with the different stages of our lives.

I am pleased to say that although I see people of all ages and genders, I have found that I see a growing number of men, again of all ages. The concept of talking about feelings and exploring emotional and psychological difficulties has, for many years, been seen as a ‘female’ rather than ‘male’ trait. But my own experience suggests that there is a change happening and that some men are starting to realise that their emotions don’t have to be kept secret and that there is real benefit in engaging in counselling.

Interestingly I find myself as a counsellor, in a minority as less than 20% of counsellors and psychotherapists on the BACP professional register, are men.