What makes a counsellor...? What makes a person want to sit in a room with another person and listen to their worries...?
Personally, for me it’s my life experience that makes me want to be there for someone, the way I needed someone through difficult life moments...
After suffering from my own personal trauma I was referred by my GP for counselling, having no idea what counselling was I went along feeling very nervous and anxious. I sat in the room and told the counsellor why I felt I needed counselling, she asked me things I wasn’t expecting and this took me out of my comfort zone. When I finished my sessions I was curious as to why she asked me the questions she did and I felt a little confused as to how this made me feel...
I got back to normal life, being a mother to two children, being a wife and trudging to work day in day out doing dead-end jobs just to help provide for my family always felt there was something more than this for me. Eight years later and after a particularly difficult time in one of my dead-end jobs I decided to do something about it and signed up for a night course which was an introduction to counselling. That was the start of a new chapter for me...
Having followed on from one course to another I find myself in a position to sit in that room with another person and listen to their worries...
I work in an integrated way, using both person centred counselling and CBT techniques, I will use my training and experience to decide the best way of working with each client individually. My experience has been mainly in Hospice care, working with clients from the age of 4 upwards either dealing with their own or a family members or a friend’s life limiting illness or working with those already bereaved. I am trained in the rewind technique which is suited to working with trauma such as PTSD or phobias and I am also trained in suicide prevention. Having studied at the University of Sunderland for three years, I have a degree in counselling and am also a member of the BACP which is the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and I follow their code of ethics.
Training and Qualifications
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BA Honours Degree in Counselling
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Foundation Degree in Counselling
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Diploma in Counselling Skills Level 3
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Equality & Diversity Level 2
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Mental Health Awareness Level 2
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Counselling Skills Level 1
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Introduction to Counselling
Additional Training and Workshops Attended
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Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect - Core V5
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Safeguarding Adults - Alerter Training
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Loss and Bereavement Level 1
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Holding the Frame
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The Importance of Father Christmas
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Record Keeping - Data Protection and Information Governance
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Loss and Bereavement Level 2
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Risk Assessment and Lone Working
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Play Therapy workshop
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Drowning in Domesticity
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Changing Patterns
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Stop
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Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training
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Rewind - Fast Trauma and Phobia Cure