About

Hi, I’m Bel! I’m a fully qualified integrative counsellor and registered member of the BACP; the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy. Currently I am offering sessions face to face in my therapy room in the heart of Bradford on Avon, by Zoom online, by telephone, and Walk and Talk. I work with adults aged 18+.

‘Integrative’ means I use different approaches to inform my work according to what you, as my client, need at the time, rather than just being restricted to one theory. This gives me flexibility in the way I work. My approach is to work collaboratively with you, side by side, taking your preferences into account so that you get what you need from our time together.

I have worked with a diverse range of adult clients regarding age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and presentations including addiction, dual diagnosis, childhood trauma, anxiety, stress, difficulties with emotional regulation, personal relationships, bereavement, a sense of feeling stuck, low self-esteem, depression, sexual identity, anger issues, and domestic abuse.

My special area of focus is around helping people to overcome the things that are holding them back in life and keeping them stuck, such as struggling with a lack of self-worth, lacking confidence or difficulty communicating their own needs to others. I have experienced and worked through similar problems, so I am able to draw on that experience in my work.

Please note, I welcome all counselling enquires; I do not restrict my work to just that one area of focus.

My approach

The way I work with clients has evolved through my training, where we were encouraged to develop our own philosophy of counselling. It continues to develop through my ongoing experience of working with clients along with my own experience of being in therapy. I continue my professional development as an ongoing process through further study and experiential practice in my areas of interest and keep up to date with current practice through my professional body BACP. I also regularly attend clinical supervision which enables me to reflect on my practice with a very experienced supervisor.

My main inspiration comes from the Person Centred and Gestalt approaches, where the development of a certain quality of therapeutic relationship between the client and the counsellor is valued as central to facilitate growth and change. Gestalt therapy also has a strong tradition of working with the body, similar in approach to aspects of mindfulness.

I also find transactional analysis and attachment theory can be helpful to understand how people relate to each other. But maybe theory only appears to explain what is going on. Therefore, I try to keep an open mind and am guided by your individual experience.

Working with the whole person

I am drawn to work in a holistic way. We are complex, embodied beings. As we become more in tune with all aspects of ourselves, including our bodies, our lives can transform. So therapy can be about working with awareness of sensation, feelings and movement in the body, working with mind imagery, as well as through talking. It feels important to me that we can begin to feel more ‘fully alive’ and responsive to “what is”, rather than just merely existing. It feels important to me to allow ourselves to experience satisfaction in what we do, rather than hurrying between doing one thing and the next.

I enjoy living in the countryside and I am starting to incorporate ecotherapy into my practice through Walk and Talk sessions. I am also interested in groupwork and I intend to incorporate the added option of groupwork in the future. If you are interested in joining a group, please contact me.