About Me
My name is Victoria, pronouns she/her. I am an integrative counsellor, and an registered member of the BACP (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists).
I believe that relationships are at the heart of what it means to be human, and through the relationship with ourselves and others we can learn and grow into the most authentic version of ourselves.
I recognise that difficult emotions can feel overwhelming and hard to look at, while simultaneously carry the ability to be cathartic and freeing. As your counsellor my aim is to provide a safe environment for you to explore yourself and all your emotions, by being a calming companion who listens to you with empathetic understanding, witnessing, accepting, and valuing you as a person.
Together we can work to find an understanding of how you view view your life, past, present, future, and how you fit into the world around you, working towards goals you set, at a pace you create, you are in control here.
My Approach
I use an integrative approach which means I am trained in different methods of counselling and instead of using only one, I can mix bits from each to make the way we work together unique and individual to you and our counselling relationship. My training gives me the skills to ensure I focus on you and your needs during sessions, allowing us to work together at a depth and pace you are comfortable with.
Some of the methods I use are:
Person Centred
Person centred counselling will help you to explore your own problems, feelings, beliefs, behaviour, and worldview, so you can become more self-aware and achieve greater independence.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT focuses on the current feelings and helps clients create manageable solutions to help you feel better now, rather than looking purely at the past. It can help you change the way you think (cognitive) and what you do (behaviour).
Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic approach focuses on immediate problems while acknowledging the importance of how a persons unconscious decisions and biases shaped through their past experiences can affect current behaviour.
Previous Experience
Currently I work with men, women and non-binary people of all backgrounds in my private practice, covering a wide rang of concerns such as anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma. As well this I help to manage the day to day running of a telephone counselling service for abortion, and volunteer at a sexual assault and abuse service in my local area.
I started my counselling journey working with women struggling with pregnancy, providing impartial, evidence-based emotional support. Working in this way allowed me to gain experience in not only pregnancy loss and abortion, but also general issues such as, anxiety, depression, family and work related problems.
I previously have worked at a SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) where I worked with men, women, and children in the direct aftermath of rape and sexual assault. The training and experience that comes with this type of work allowed me to appreciate the depth and complexity of the feelings that arise from trauma and ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Experiences). How important it is to recognise that I will never be able to understand your feelings as I cannot walk in your shoes, but I can sit with you in the dark, and walk beside you at your pace through your journey, seeing and accepting you for where you are and where you would like to be.