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Annette Johnson, Counsellor, MBACP

 

 

East Finchley Consulting Rooms, London N2 

                              

It may be a huge step for you to start looking for a counsellor. I appreciate the flood of information, the different professional bodies and different theoretical approaches involved in counselling and psychotherapy can be confusing, however, I do believe it to be worthwhile doing your research to find someone you feel comfortable with and able to talk to without censoring yourself.

Usually we can manage most of the challenges life throws at us, but there are times such as when you are unable to draw on your support network, or are feeling overwhelmed by your emotions and temporarily unable to cope, when the best option may be to speak to a counsellor.  Speaking to someone who is outside the situation you are experiencing can help you to clarify your thoughts and feelings, set priorities and decide a course of action.

As an impartial professional, I am able to offer a safe and confidential space at the East Finchley Consulting Rooms in North London to help you to explore the issues you are facing.

What kind of Counselling do I offer?

Counselling is an opportunity to explore your thoughts and emotions and any changes you may be considering.  It can be used to address specific issues such as a career change and can be used to explore and realise your potential to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

Counseling also involves building a therapeutic relationship with a counsellor, a place where you can be yourself in a non-judgemental setting.  Often this can have a ripple effect on your other relationships at home and in the workplace, as you begin to negotiate any changes you may want to make.

Counselling can also offer an opportunity for you to look at what really matters to you. We all have the capacity to spend so much time in meaningless activities, as we forget our goals and dreams in the rush of our daily lives. Counselling can re-connect or help you to discover what is important, what is meaningful to you and what you value.  The quality of your life can be enriched by accessing your creativity; this does not mean producing complex works of art; but may result in coming up with a creative solution to a long standing issue.

As a trained and experienced Practitioner, I am able to work with clients on specific issues in a solution-focussed and time limited way, using CBT Techniques.  As a Psychosynthesis Counsellor I am also experienced in building and nurturing a therapeutic relationship with my clients in the medium to long term and I am able to work with clients who wish to enrich their lives and work towards actualising their potential. As Psychosynthesis is a holistic therapy, our therapeutic work can, if you wish, take account of the body and the spirit as well as the mind.

Can counselling help me?

Talking to your partner, friends and relatives is great, however if you are experiencing difficulties in your life, your partner, friends and relatives may find it uncomfortable or threatening to hear what you want to say and may rush into giving solutions and advice. Alternatively, they may have presented you with changes you are finding difficult to manage.

 

Talking to a counsellor can help you to:

  • Clarify your feelings without worrying  about someone else’s reactions
  • Support you in finding your own solutions
  • Explore different strategies to address your difficulties and what genuine choices you may have
  • Defuse a situation that may seem currently  overwhelming, helping you to feel  less alone with it
  • Improve your trust in your ability to make better decisions
  • Make sense of a particularly challenging or traumatic incident that you may have recently experienced or experienced in the past
  • Look at any coping behaviours you have developed, such as  an increasing dependency on substances like alcohol or drugs
  • Develop coping strategies to survive in a  particularly stressful or hostile working environment

Working together we can explore your issues at your pace and you can set and re-set your priorities as the counselling progresses.  We will review the sessions regularly to make sure that the counselling is meeting your needs.

My experience as a councellor

I qualified as a counsellor in 1998, having completed a Diploma in Psychosynthesis Counselling and Therapy which is a course accredited by the BACP. I have worked as a private Practitioner both in the UK and abroad. Having worked with a psychiatrist, I have acquired a good understanding of medical diagnoses in mental health. This experience stood me in good stead when I went on to work as a counsellor in the prison system, a crisis centre and a BME counselling service, building up several thousand hours of one-to-one sessions with clients on the way.

I have also taken clients from Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP’s) and worked with residents returning to the UK from abroad.

 

My experience as a counsellor has embraced a broad range of clients, in terms of gender, age, religion and ethnicity.

 

As a member of the BACP, I operate within their code of ethics and work to their professional standards.  I regularly participate in training and my work is supervised, so that my practise as a counsellor is continually developing.

Contacting me

You can get in touch with me by telephone on  020700000   or by email: annette.johnson@dsl.pipex.com,  in confidence.

I work from the East Finchley Consulting Rooms a short walk from East Finchley Station on the Northern Line.

Unfortunately, there is no disabled access to the building.

 

After answering any questions you may have, we can make an appointment for an introductory meeting which will last approximately 55 minutes.   This meeting will be an opportunity for you to decide whether counselling will help you and whether you want to book further sessions. It is also an opportunity to agree the terms and conditions under which I will be offering the counselling and to explain my policy on confidentiality.  You may want to book a number of sessions to address a specific problem, or move to an open ended agreement with time to explore a range of issues which may be affecting you.

Sessions are on a weekly basis and last for 55 minutes.

My fee for counselling is £52.00 per session.

Clinical Supervision

I am completing a post graduate Diploma in Supervision, which adopts an integrative approach.  I am now able to offer other counsellors clinical supervision

I aim to support my supervisees, in their place of work or private practice to:

 

  • Maintain careful boundaries around the therapeutic relationship
  • Maintain careful boundaries around the therapeutic relationship with our clients in a host organisation which is underfunded, chaotic and may itself be lacking  boundaries
  • To learn from our mistakes in counselling relationships – mistakes which we all make, that have the potential to be stimulating and invaluable learning tools
  • To nurture your emerging identity as a professional counsellor
  • To support you in your client work , exploring different approaches that you could constructively use or looking at potential avenues that could be explored
  • Support you in containing your client’s material and exploring any difficulties this may present you with
  • Work to the professional standards and code of ethics of the BACP

My fee for clinical supervision is £36.00 per hour until June 2012, while undergoing training.

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