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I have availability within my practice at the moment. I usually work Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Friday. There are some evening appointments for those who work in the day, however these are very popular and quickly get booked. My first appointment of the day is usually 10.30 AM and the latest is at 6 PM. Counselling sessions last 1 hour.

I am an experienced Integrative counsellor based at Creech St Michael, a village just outside of Taunton, Somerset. I have been established in private practice 2011. I work from a small barn conversion at the back of my cottage, which is a peaceful, warm building that echoes its rustic past and offers a safe, relaxed and quiet place to explore one's thoughts and feelings:  a small sanctuary from the modern world.

Many people at some point in their lives experience difficult or low times and cope with them the best way they can. These problems can range from stress, anger, anxiety, obsessions and depression to loss, bereavement and low self esteem. In fact these problems can be anything that stops you from living a normal, fulfilled happy life or leaves you feeling worried and concerned.

At these challenging times, most people would agree that it’s helpful to talk to someone because the old saying 'it’s good to talk' is true. But who do you talk to? The answer is without doubt a professional, because confiding in a friend or family member generally doesn’t work very well.

A good therapist will be genuinely interested in their client, empathic and non-judgmental and will support their client while they explore their thoughts, feelings and behaviour and help them to move forward. 

As an Integrative Counsellor I draw from many major approaches to counselling. This includes Person Centred in which the relationship between client and therapist encourages positive change in the client. CBT which can help greatly with issues in the `here and now` and Psychoanalysis which looks at deeper, older issues from our past, as well as several other approaches. This Integrative way of working ensures that the whole of the person is treated and steers away from `one size fits all` as I am able to adapt the therapy to suit the individual.

Once you have made the decision to enter counselling, the first session can be quite straight forward. The client is asked to complete a short information form: name, address, occupation etc. We then agree our Working Alliance: An agreement on how we will work together. This will include fees, length and frequency of sessions, confidentiality and the cancellation policy. This usually only takes a few minutes after which the session begins and the client asked the reason for counselling and what goals they have in mind.

My approach to supervision is based on the 7-eyed model by Hawkins & Shohet which considers the relationship between client and counsellor, emotional responses to the client, the counsellor’s own process and interventions. I also draw from the CLEAR Supervision model by Peter Hawkins. I am very interested in the relationship between client and therapist and the effect of one on the other.  

My modality as a counsellor is Integrative but lean heavily towards Person Centred, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Psychoanalysis and Transactional Analysis (TA). I have a keen interest in working with symbolism and metaphors and enjoy the work of Jung and Freud. I particularly like using creativity with supervisees to enhance their awareness and understanding of themselves, their clients and the counselling process. Many of my counselling clients come from the business world, the professions and self employment. I provide couples counselling and I also gained experience with working with younger people while working at a Somerset boarding school.

Once we have decided that we can work together as supervisee and supervisor, the first session is usually quite straight forward. The supervisee is asked to complete a short information form: name, address, place of work and insurance details etc. We then agree our Working Alliance: An agreement on how we will work together. This will include fees, length and frequency of sessions, confidentiality and the cancellation policy. This usually only takes a few minutes because we will have talked over these things in the free 30 minute meeting previously. After this, the session begins and the supervisee is asked what they would like to bring to supervision.