TRAINING, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

My counselling journey began many years ago when I was struggling with relationship breakdown, and the loss of the career I had trained for (teaching), as well as the future I had assumed I would have. I worked through this painful time with the help of a counsellor, and it changed the course of my life. Some years later I started training to be a counsellor myself.

I am an Accredited Registrant Counsellor and an Approved Supervisor with The National Counselling Society which is an Accredited Register recognised by the Professional Standards Agency. I work within the NCS Code of Ethics at all times. I now have twenty years' experience of counselling people with a variety of problems, such as bereavement grief and loss, depression, anxiety, anger, stress, childhood trauma, identity issues, low self-esteem, spiritual difficulties, and family and relationship conflicts.

I am a practising Christian and a member of the Association of Christians in Counselling (ACC). I am interested in the intersection between faith and psychology, and keen to help Christians to explore all of the issues that this may raise in their spiritual lives. In my practice I see many people with a wide range of spiritual and religious beliefs, and work with what each individual person brings to therapy.

I began my training at the City of Bath College, completing the CSCT Certificate in Counselling Theory and Certificate in Counselling Skills under the tutelage of Cynthia Barker. Each of these courses took a year on a part-time basis and gave me a good grounding in foundational counselling theory and skills.

After this I completed a Diploma of Higher Education in Pastoral Counselling at Network Training in Bristol. This course and qualification is validated by the University of Gloucestershire and fulfils all the requirements for advanced counselling training laid down by the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy). This was an integrative course which covered advanced theory and skills and included a significant element of personal development for me as a counsellor.

My experience has been gained in private practice, and at community agencies in Trowbridge and Chippenham in Wiltshire.

In 2013 I undertook an Advanced Diploma in Counselling Supervision at Kathy Raffles Counselling Service in Taunton and was awarded this qualification by the University of Gloucestershire.  

For the past couple of years I have worked as a grief counsellor with GriefChat, a groundbreaking webchat service to improve access to bereavement support for grieving people throughout the UK and overseas.

I now work as a grief counsellor in the UK exclusively online or via telephone. Contact me on my mobile - 07539 411068 - or via email to set up an assessment session, and we will take it from there.