LOCATION: Palmeira Square & Wilbury Road
AVAILABILITY: Thursday evenings
PRICE: £50 per session (£20 first session fee)
SPECIALISMS:
Bereavement and loss
Issues around addiction
Autism & ADHD (Neurodivergence)
Trauma
Self esteem and identity
The inner critic
Low self worth
Depression & anxiety
Carers and people coping with health issues
Conditions of worth from childhood and shame
Abandonment issues
The effects a childhood of boarding school, or being bought up in care, has on the adult
Bullying or discrimination of any kind

Training

Sarah is a qualified, experienced integrative counsellor and registered member of the BACP. She has a keen interest in people and different cultures, originally gaining a B.A in Social Anthropology and then an M.A in Migration Studies from Sussex University. Sarah then went on to gain her FdSc degree from Brighton university in Person-Centred Counselling. She has worked with people in many different settings, with a wide range of different issues. These include counselling for The Brighton Housing Trust, for people experiencing homelessness and housing problems.

She has experience working with people from all walks of life who are having problems with addiction and has had extensive training to gain her certificate in Solution Focused Therapy for drug and alcohol addiction from CRI. Over the course of a year she attended trainings in London to gain her certificate in Somatic Trauma Therapy from Babette Rothschild, to then go on to work with people who have experienced different degrees trauma. Sarah gained her Martlets certificate in Bereavement Counselling after several months of training on all the models and theories around grief and loss and the different effects this has on a person's life.

Sarah also co facilitated a counselling group to support people with schizophrenia and neurodiversity. She has worked with carers and young carers and has indepth knowledge of the challenges they face. Sarah has experience of working with displaced people, asylum seekers and refugees as a volunteer for YAC in Brighton. This gave her a greater understanding of the many challenges people face with forced migration and trying to resettle in a different country.

Sarah is currently undertaking training in counselling for children and young people’s, 9yrs - 18yrs.

Approach

Although Sarah works primarily from the person centred approach, she is an integrated therapist. This means that she can incorporate other types of therapy to respond to an individual client's needs. This could include creative methods, solution focused methods, mindfulness and grounding body work, both with short-term and long term clients.

She believes that as every person is unique, then therapy should be a process of supporting each individual in the way they feel suits them best, by exploring their goals and reasons for coming to counselling. The person-centred approach is very much grounded in a non-judgmental, accepting space where compassion and congruence or 'realness' are paramount and the openness to the possibility of being vulnerable. This approach also believes that each individual is the expert on themselves, but that people can get stuck sometimes in processing life. Sarah aims to provide the right environment for progress to be made. This is by listening carefully and reflecting the client's process. Then observing things the client may not have noticed about themselves or their situation and using relevant questions and sometimes gentle challenge where needed.

While sharing their journey in this way, often 'lightbulb moments' happen. Seeing their story from a different place can illuminate what's been holding a person back. A client can then gain insight into their psychological process and enable them to fulfil their potential going forward.

Bereavement and loss

Bereavement can be overwhelming and often will be one of the most traumatic experiences a person can go through. Sarah is a trained and experienced bereavement counsellor. Having trained and worked as a volunteer counsellor at The Martlets for two years, she learnt about the different stages of grief and all that this entails. Through talking, a bereaved person can start to resolve the immensely difficult feelings around the loss of someone they love.

Grief is a very personal experience and bereavement counselling is often about working through these painful and complicated emotions. To do this Sarah works in a collaborative way with a client, as everyone has different needs. Some people have a need to understand the theories and stages around grief. Other people may find creative tools such as memory jars or life records are helpful in their process. While for others simply talking can help resolve issues and feelings that may be preventing them from moving on.

Issues around addiction

Sarah is a trained and experienced addiction counsellor having trained and worked for CRI. She understands that clients come to counselling for a range of different worries around drugs and alcohol, which could be a fear that experimental or recreational use is starting to negatively effect their life or that addiction is seriously impacting it. Addiction can also include a large range of other issues such as gambling, pornography, social media or shopping, to name but a few.

Sarah works with clients to identify their goals, whether this is to support people who seek to moderate or reduce their addiction, or potentially addictive behaviour, or if the goal is to stop completely or if the goal is just a desire to understand the nature of addiction. Sarah can help by using tools such as solution focused therapy, or working with the cycle of change. She also provides a non-judgemental safe place for someone to process their experiences. Sarah is also experienced in counselling family members or friends who are worried about a loved one's addiction and the ripple effect this has on people in their lives. Seeking help about addictive behaviours in whatever context, can empower and encourage a person to understand themselves better and move forward with their lives.

Trauma

Sarah has training and experience to help clients cope with the effect of trauma on their lives. It's imporatnt to recognise that there are different types of trauma. From whats called 'acute trauma' which results from a single incident, 'chronic trauma' which is repeated or prolonged trauma such as domestic abuse or repeated violence, or 'complex trauma' which means exposure to multiple varied events. Trauma of any type can often have a serious, long lasting impact. Trauma counselling seeks to explore someone's emotional and physical reactions to the event and look at ways to help someone process what has happened, while also stabilising reactions so that life can move on and past trauma so that it no longer has huge and negative influence on the present.

Sarah has been trained in somatic trauma therapy. One of the main principles of her training is safety and never to help a client recall traumatic memories without first being confident the flow of anxiety can be contained at will. This is because it is very important not to retraumatise someone during counselling as very disturbing memories can sometimes cause extreme anxiety, panic attacks or even vivid flashbacks. Sarah uses a combination of tools such as grounding work, mindfulness practises to ground someone in the present and mindful self awareness to become more aware of thoughts, mind and body. What is important to realise is that it's not a 'one size fits all', so Sarah works with clients to discover what is effective for them.

Children & young people

Sarah has just completed the training part of the advanced specialist level 5 CPCAB, Counselling Children and Young people certificate. To gain the final qualification she is required to do 50 hours of counselling children and young people, which she is currently offering at a reduced rate sessions of £25.

Sarah provides a calm, therapeutic environment where children and young people can express themselves freely without fear of judgement. Things such as difficulties at school, problems navigating adolescence, low self esteem or anxiety, can all cause young people anguish and worry. But by learning to work through difficult emotions and experiences, sometimes for the first time, increased confidence and emotional balance can start to emerge. 

Therapy with children and young people is all about understanding the developmental stages they are going through and building a therapeutic connection through talking and creative methods. Trust is vital and builds when they feel heard, understood and allowed to express themselves in a relaxed, safe space of empathy and kindness