N.B. This is written from the perspectives of Felicity and Paul.

Our view is counselling tends to focus more on the person’s immediate, day to day issues and challenges and hence can be comparatively brief. Psychotherapy tends to deal more with the person’s deeper emotional problems & mental health issues, including fixed behaviour patterns that may no longer be appropriate or helpful. Hence it is typically (but does not have to be) longer term work.

Psychotherapy training lasts five years, compared to three years for counselling. It includes a mental health placement which allows much insight into mental health conditions, medication and services available. Trainee psychotherapists are required to be personal weekly therapy throughout their five years to give them fuller understanding of their own process, which in turn supports them to work at deeper levels with clients.

Short-term therapy (typically 6 - 12 sessions) can help you explore your current coping strategies and explore additional strategies to enable you to manage your daily life issues in a more empowered way.

Long-term therapy can allow you to understand how experiences from the past and how you are in the present may be affecting current difficulties, then explore ways to move forwards in these.

Integrative counsellors draw from different approaches including: Person Centred; Psychodynamic; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; Solution Focused Brief Therapy; Creative Therapy; Transactional Analysis (TA); Mindfulness; Sensorimotor Psychotherapy; Compassion Focused Therapy; Psychoeducation (*); Neuroscience; Polyvagal Theory; Ecotherapy.

(*) Many people who struggle with hard to regulate emotions are helped by learning to understand why this happens. To help with this, we may also use teaching with Psychoeducational Aids as part of therapy. These look at the role of the brain, chemical and body reactions and can enable people to learn to recognise triggers and develop strategies to become more in control.

Gestalt is a German word meaning ‘whole’, and contemporary Gestalt is a holistic therapy. We believe this is important because, as human beings, we cannot separate our bodies, minds, and emotions.

As Gestalt therapists, we will invite you to be interested in the whole of your experience, including your: thoughts, feelings and body sensations, and the connection between these. We will support you to pay attention to sensations arising within your body. Such feelings often contain important messages, e.g. that you are feeling anxious or are angry. Noticing these allows access to new choices and increased embodied support.

We believe that building a trusting, therapeutic relationship between us is a central part of our work together. Gestalt seeks to develop awareness of how we relate to others and our environment. Believing in the importance of relationships, together we will pay attention to what is happening moment by moment, both between us and between you and your relationships with your ‘self’, others and the world. We believe that supporting you to stay with your present experiences enables you to gain increased self-awareness. This, in turn, allows you to identify unfinished business and enables more satisfying relationships and ways of being in all aspects of your life.

Many people connect ’empty chair’ work with Gestalt. Whilst a popular early intervention, which sometimes we may use in different forms, as a Gestalt therapist, we work creatively, e.g. through thought, verbal and embodied experiments. These are all ways of building self-awareness. You are welcome to bring your dreams and we will support you to gain meaning from these.

The first session is a chance for you to explore, in confidence, the issues bringing you to therapy at this time. It allows us to get to know each other a little and to begin discussing what style and length of therapy will be most helpful to your individual situation.

If we decide to work together, after agreeing a suitable day and time for meeting, normally weekly, we can start identifying goals to work towards together.

These may include:

• Gaining greater self-awareness, self-compassion and acceptance.
• Understanding deeply held beliefs and patterns of behaviour.
• Completing any unfinished business.
• Exploring new choices available to you.
• Finding hope and encouragement.
• Setting appropriate boundaries

We will review our work together regularly, including monitoring your progress and your changing hopes and goals. Endings are an important part of the process, so we will plan together for an ending that is satisfying and supportive to you.

When we have worked together for twelve sessions or more, we suggest we have at least four sessions to review your journey, consolidate your progress and ensure you are taking away valuable resources to support your ongoing wellness.

Felicity’s qualifications include:
MSc (2015 – December 2020) in Gestalt Psychotherapy at The Metanoia Institute, London.
CPCAB Diploma in Integrative Therapeutic Counselling (July 2014)

She also draws from:
Various courses in working with children, young people and families.

Her continued professional development training includes:
COVID 19 Telehealth course – “Moving Your Practice Online” (training provider – Online Therapy Institute) (March-April 2020)
Trauma training (previous); (2020 – 2021) ‘Diploma in Contemporary Trauma Practice’ (training provider – Relational Change).
Advanced Diploma in Couples counselling
Certificate in Supervision, Centre for Supervision and Team Development (CSTD) Bath.

Non-related qualifications:
B Ed (Hons) in Teaching
Post Graduate Diploma in Special Educational Needs (Visual Impairment)

Paul’s qualifications include:
UKCP Accredited Diploma in Gestalt Psychotherapy (Metanoia Institute, London & SCPTI, Scarborough) 2017 –2023
Diploma in Life and Business Coaching; NLP Practitioner (UKCPD, Swindon) 2014

Non-related qualifications:
Masters in Business Administration (MBA) (Open University) 2002
BA (Mathematics) (Oxford University) 1984

UKCP (United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapists), as an accredited member

BACP (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists), as a Registered and accredited member (MBACP Accred)

ACC (Association of Christian Counsellors), as a registered member

UKAGP (United Kingdom Association of Gestalt Practitioners)

EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy)

AC (Association for Coaching)

UKCP (United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapists)