I am an accredited counsellor, supervisor and coach. I trained at Liverpool John Moores University, PCCS and the ILM, and qualified as a counsellor in 2001. I am a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and am on its Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.
In all areas of my work, I aim to create an environment and a therapeutic relationship within which you feel safe enough to explore whatever issues you are facing. I will treat you with respect, will try to understand you and your experiences, will be genuine in our relationship and will not be judgmental.
My experience includes:
- staff counsellor with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister;
- affiliate counsellor with several UK Employee Assistance Providers (EAPs), providing counselling to Government departments and the private sector;
- private practice since 2001 (Actuality Counselling);
- volunteer counsellor with the Young Persons Advisory Service (YPAS) in Liverpool;
- counsellor with the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM);
- counsellor in a GP surgery;
- online counselling;
- supervisor at the Speke-Garston Domestic Violence Project;
- associate counsellor with the Talking Matters Counselling Service in Salford; and
- designing and delivering therapy-related workshops.
I offer Person-centred counselling, Solution-focused Brief Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), symbolic modelling (using Clean Language), inner child work, equine-assisted therapy and life coaching.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Victor Frankl (1905-1997)
My personal journey in counselling began in 1998 with the Diploma course at Liverpool John Moores University under the guidance of Janet Tolan, Jenny Peel and Di Dossor.
The journey continues: through the professional and personal development which I undertake on a regular basis, through living a life as a human being on Planet Earth and through my work with my clients, each of whom faces his or her own unique challenges and finds their own ways of dealing with existence. From them I learn valuable lessons and am often in awe of their perseverance, bravery and openness to change, as they strive to improve the quality of their lives.
I also worked for over 30 years in the Civil Service, in the areas of counselling, communications, IT and systems design.
"If someone talked to you the way you talk to yourself, you would have kicked them out of your life long ago."
Carla Gordon
Tel: +44 (0)7941 488 550
e-mail:actualitycounselling@gmail.com
"The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."
Charles Dubois (1804-1867)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling (LJMU, Liverpool)
- Accredited Member of the BACP
- Diploma in Casework Supervision (PCCS, Manchester)
- BSc in Applied Psychology (LJMU, Liverpool)
- ILM Level 5 Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring
- Level 1 - Assoc. for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO)
- EAGALA-trained in Equine-assisted Therapy
- Advanced EFT Certificate of Completion (EFT-ADV)
- BA in English Literature (University College, Swansea)
"In every adult there lurks a child - an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the personality which wants to develop and become whole."
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
"As simple mortals faced with a limited time to spend in this world, one of the inescapable tasks is to reconcile oneself to having to create a meaningful existence, in which not too much time is wasted and where some sense is made of what can seem nonsensical."
Emmy van Duerzen (2012)
ARTICLE: Selecting a counsellor or therapist
Choosing the right counsellor is no small task. A little preparation can make the job easier and this article may help.
Counselling Resource
Read the full article.
"Do not let the day slip through your fingers, but live it fully now, this breath, this moment, catapulting you into full awareness. Time is precious, minutes disappearing like water into sand, unless you choose to pay attention. Since you do not know the number of your days, treat each as if it is your last.
Be that compassionate with yourself, that open and loving to others, that determined to give what is yours to give and to let in the energy and wonder of this world. Experience everything, writing, relating, eating, doing all the little necessary tasks of life as if for the first time…pushing nothing aside as unimportant. You have received these same reminders many times before, this time, take them into your soul. For if you choose to live this way, you will be rich beyond measure, grateful beyond words, and the day of your death will arrive with no regrets."
Danna Faulds