Qualifications

Professional qualifications and training:

Training in sexual compulsivity and internet pornography addiction completed at Palm Springs, California, November 2007. Course run by The Meadows, U.S based addiction recovery centre.

National Centre for Eating Disorders, (NCFED) Esher, Surrey; Practitioner skills course completed November 2006. Diploma granted June 2007 after written submission. NCFED Nutritional Interventions course completed June 07. NCFED Binge Eating in Obesity course completed September 07.

Relate Diploma in Psychosexual Therapy; Herbert Gray College, Rugby, September 2002.

Relate Certificate in Couple Counselling; Herbert Gray College, Rugby, September 2000.

Psychodynamic counselling foundation course; Westminster Pastoral Foundation, St Albans, 1995.

ITEC certificate in anatomy, physiology and massage,West London School of Massage, Bayswater, 1990.

As a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) I am bound by the professional code of ethics of the organisation. I also hold full professional indemnity and public liability insurance.

Areas of Specialism

• Improved couple communication
• Rediscovering couple cordiality
• Restoration of intimacy
• Teaching relaxation techniques
• Stress coping mechanisms
• Strategies for handling destructive thought patterns and behaviour

Experience, outlook and background:
I am an experienced relationship counsellor who specialises in both couple and individual counselling covering all relationship issues. I have helped many individuals and couples to feel empowered enough to make positive changes for themselves and thus reach greater fulfilment in their lives.

I offer a warm and genuine relationship to clients and always respects individual values, personal choice, resources, culture, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

I work integratively by utilising skills and techniques that I have developed through studying across the range of therapeutic modalities including Psychodynamic, Person Centred and Cognitive Behavioural.

I trained initially as a Psychodynamic counsellor and went on to use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in my work. As an individual member of BACP I am bound by its Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy and subject to its Professional Conduct Procedure.

I am a member of both the Experienced Counsellor Network which operates across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex and the Couples Counselling Network which operates around the country. 

I joined Relate over twenty years ago and, after completing initial training as a relationship counsellor, went on to study Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as an integral part of Relate’s psychosexual therapy (PST) Diploma course, held at Herbert Gray College, Rugby. I completed the PST Diploma in 2004.

My communication skills, broadminded outlook and easy-going style served me well during a successful journalistic career and, coupled with a non-judgemental approach that was fundamental to my role befriending the depressed and suicidal as a Samaritan volunteer from 1990-2000, they proved highly transferable to the world of counselling.

During this period (1994-1995) I also completed a foundation year in psychodynamic counselling run by the Westminster Pastoral Foundation.

I can help individuals and couples with a broad range of life problems including loss, abuse, domestic violence, self-esteem, anger management, fractured communication, or its complete breakdown, and a range of stress-related problems.

I have been interested in spirituality, yoga and relaxation techniques since travelling extensively in India as a young man. My exploration of the mind/body link continued during training with the West London School of Massage where I achieved the International Therapy Examination Council’s (ITEC) certificate in anatomy, physiology and massage.

My work can include selected application of relaxation and mindfulness techniques to help clients cope more effectively with life in the fast lane.