How I Work

I work as a humanistic counsellor and group therapist. Therapists using a humanistic approach believe that:
• every individual is unique
• change, growth and development are possible for everyone
• a healthy counselling environment is non-judgemental and compassionate
• striving to be honest and authentic is central to healthy counselling
• our job is to help our clients realise their own unique potential.

I have trained in the following therapeutic approaches: Person-Centred & Existential Counselling and Groupwork, Integrative Therapy, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, and Formative (Body) Psychology. Click here for more information about my training and qualifications. Don’t worry if these terms don’t mean anything to you. It’s not essential to understand them to benefit from counselling or group therapy.

Diversity: A central part of my work is respect for diversity and human differences. I recognise that many people experience prejudice and discrimination from others because of their race, sexuality, gender, class, disability, HIV status, and age, among many others. I try to work with diversity and difference by acknowledging the social context within which we live, and addressing my own feelings, experiences and prejudices in my personal development work.
A lot of my work is with gay men, although not all, and I am happy to work with men and women of all kinds.

Ethics: I recognise that counsellors and therapists have power in their work with clients. Clients also have power in a therapeutic relationship, but when a client engages in counselling or therapy they make themselves vulnerable to a greater or lesser extent.

Ethical working is a cornerstone of my practice as a counsellor and group therapist. I subscribe to the Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners Codes of Ethics and Practice: www.ahpp.org/ethical/code_of_ethics.htm

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starting therapy/counsellinginformation sheetsabout me
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