The Counselling Shed
‘Who I am is worth presenting to the world.’
Alan Downs.
My empathic approach is based on life experience rather than a text book!
I have gone through my own periods of real difficulty and struggle. This, I believe, helps me to be a better counsellor because it helps me to be able to better empathise with you.
Having the chance to talk things through with my own counsellor – someone who was not a family member, my partner or friend and yet someone who was non-judgmental and who I felt was completely on my side and wanting the best for me, helped me immensely.
Before becoming a counsellor I worked as a University Lecturer and before that I worked in the construction industry in the UK and overseas. I feel that these roles have given me a wide range of experience to draw upon, so as to be able to better support you in my counselling work.
Alongside running my private counselling practice, I worked as a counsellor for 7 years at the University of Kent. Due to the amount of students that I saw who were struggling with porn addiction, I then decided to do a 2-year advanced level Diploma in Counselling for Sex Addiction, Pornography Addiction and Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder – which also trained me to offer counselling to the partners of those who struggle with compulsive sexual behaviour.
Counselling helped me to make sense of all that had happened to me in life and it helped me to start to find steps forward that I could call my own. Let me help you to find your next steps in life!
‘taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s a cha-cha.’
Robert Brault
In nature, seeds only grow when the conditions are right and in counselling the absence of threat and judgement contributes to creating a condition of safety which is conducive to the growth of the human psyche.
I will support and empower you to grow towards your recovery.
I will strive to create a safe, permissive and reliable space for you, where you will not feel shamed or judged for sharing whatever is on your mind.
I will respect your right to share as little or as much as your feel comfortable with. We will go at a pace that feels right for you.
I will not ‘make you’ do anything or put any pressure or demands upon you but will support you, and sometimes challenge you, to identify what it is that you need.
The Sex Addiction Counselling service that I offer is not anti-sex. It is not shaming. My role is to help you to move forwards, which includes having a sexual life, but in a way that feels right for you. You not me!!
I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapists (BACP) and I work in alignment with the BACP’s Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Having ‘accredited’ status means that my counselling practice has been deemed to meet the BACP’s higher standard of competence, ethics and independence.
I have monthly meetings with my counselling supervisor, the purpose of which is to ensure that I am working safety and ethically, and to ensure that I am putting your safety and welfare at the heart on my work.
If you feel that I might be able to help then please get in contact. I look forward to hearing from you.
Phone: 07757 859650
Email: bradley@thecounsellingshed.co.uk
If I am unable to answer my phone when you call then please leave a message and I will call you back within 24 hours.
I look forward to being able to offer you a discrete and supportive counselling service.
Appointments are offered daytime or evening subject to availability.
‘Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’
Howard Thurman