FAQs

What are Celia’s qualifications?

I initially trained as a teacher of Meditation and became interested in helping people manage stress. This eventually led me to train as a Person Centred Counsellor at Metanoia in London from 1987-89. After moving up north, I began training at the Manchester Gestalt Centre and gained my Diploma and MSc in Gestalt Psychotherapy in 1998. Subsequently, I trained in EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) ‘the tapping technique’ which is a particularly fast way of working with anxiety and phobias. I also became a supervisor and I have also trained in a number of management profiling tools which I use in my work as an executive coach.

I am an accredited member of the BACP - British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and I am registered with the UKCP - UK Council for Psychotherapy through my professional association: GPTI - Gestalt Psycotherapy & Training Institute.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

I continue to train with Dr Ruella Frank in somatic psychotherapy and the integration of childhood developmental movement patterns.

What is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy?

There is a lot of debate about this, the two are very close cousins and some people see no difference. However, psychotherapy training generally takes longer than counselling. I like to think of counselling as shorter term support for life problems and psychotherapy as longer term support for personal development that usually involves exploring difficulties from the past and how those manifest today. Gestalt psychotherapy focuses on facilitating awareness and contact through here and now experience that may include memories and feelings from the past.

What is supervision in the context of counselling and psychotherapy?

In order to practise ethically as a psychotherapist I need to have regular supervision. This means having professional consultation with another therapist who is trained or experienced as a supervisor in order to discuss how best to work with my clients. This may include exploration of my feelings and thoughts about the work, advice, or support for emotionally demanding work. I currently have supervision with one of the foremost Gestalt therapists specialising in child development and movement patterns.

Do I have to pay for cancelled appointments?

It depends. Appointments cancelled within 24 hours will need to be paid for as you have booked that time. Outside the 24 hours, I am happy to re-arrange the time at no extra charge.

If someone really likes their therapist, could they become friends with them?

This is not considered to be helpful for clients because it is more useful to have a private, safe, space that is just for therapy otherwise the boundaries get muddled. In therapy, the therapist is just there for you; in friendship you are there for each other - ideally. This means that I will not have social contact with clients either during therapy or afterwards. Sometimes this means that it’s sad saying goodbye at the end of therapy.

What if I decide I want to end therapy?

There normally comes a time when it just feels right to end. You feel ready to leave. Depending on how long we have been working together, we would have one or two sessions to focus on completing our work together and saying goodbye. Sometimes, people feel they want to end suddenly, or just not show up. My preference is for us to talk about what is happening to make sure we can make a good ending.

How should I choose a therapist?

I suggest its a mixture of gut feel and good research. Find out the kind of therapy you want, make sure the therapist is registered and well qualified, then talk to several different therapists over the phone. Choose one or two to go and see for an introductory session and see if the chemistry is right. You want to feel that this is someone you can feel reasonably comfortable talking to and someone you feel you can develop with. I usually suggest we have 4 sessions together and then have a review to decide if you want to continue.

If there should be a problem, if you choose a counsellor or psychotherapist who is registered with UKCP or accredited with BACP, you are able to make a complaint and get help with this.