My approach
I believe all people are unique and therefore use my training, experience and intuition to work in a creative and flexible way that reflects this. Whether this is your first time coming to counselling or you have had counselling before, I will meet you where you are at and work collaboratively with you. This means that I see counselling as something that we do together, exploring together with curiosity what may be going on for you, a journey in which I will walk alongside you supportively, with openness and respect for you. I am aware that opening up can take time and be scary and will endeavour to go at a pace that is right for you.
I have worked with people with a wide variety of struggles, from disordered eating to existential struggles, anxiety to relationship difficulties. I could list many other areas but what I believe is most important is that I would see you as a whole person rather than just as your problems.
I value the unique identity and experiences of each person I work with, and invite you to feel free to bring all of who you are into the room. I welcome you and your sexuality, gender, ethnicity, culture, race, class, disabilities, faith and spirituality.
I value the relationship I have with each client I work with and see it as an honour to walk alongside people in their journey.
Qualifications, experience and professional affiliation
I am fully qualified as a Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counsellor, with a postgraduate diploma from Brighton University. My theoretical approach is at it’s core person-centred, with a particular draw to the process experiential and focusing-orientated approaches within person centred. The way I work is grounded in relational psychotherapy and attachment theory, also drawing upon Transactional Analysis. I am interested in the Enneagram and exploring this personality map for those who are interested. I also offer creative ways of working such as a sand tray and drawing for those who want to use this mode of exploration.
Alongside private practice I work for the charity Release facilitating therapeutic groups for new mums. I work as a Lead Tutor at East Sussex College on the BACP accredited Foundation degree in person-centred counselling. I also facilitate reflective practice and wellbeing workshops for frontline workers. I previously worked as a counsellor for a specialist grief charity.
I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and work within their framework for good practice. I am reliable and dedicated to professionalism in my work, whilst remaining down to earth and human!
Before training as a counsellor I worked with people struggling with mental health or addiction, mainly within the homeless community. In this role I found myself able to connect with people from all walks of life and see people beyond the labels given to them. I learnt the value in opening up to the ‘shadowy’ sides of ourselves that we can shy away from, and the healing that can come from bringing these parts of ourselves into the light of an accepting person. Seeing the way these therapeutic relationships enabled people to grow towards their potential and become more truly themselves led me to training as a counsellor.
Contact
If you would like to explore working together then please do use the contact form to get in touch to arrange an initial meeting. Alternatively feel free to send me an email at abbyperrinscounselling@gmail.com