Low-vision page
This is a summary of the Actuality website for users with impaired vision. If you require further information, my contact details are:
Phone: +44 (0)7941 488 550
E-mail: actualitycounselling@gmail.com.
Actuality Counselling (run by Steve Manning) is based in the centre of Liverpool at 24 Arrad Street, Liverpool, L7 7JE and has been operating since 2001.
I provide a confidential and respectful counselling service to adult individuals, using Person-centred counselling, Solution-focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), inner child work, equine-assisted therapy and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).
I also offer counselling supervision for qualified counsellors and trainees, and am a life coach.
I am available to see clients between 9 am and 6 pm Monday to Thursday and between 9 am and 1.30 pm on Fridays. It is sometimes possible to make appointments outside these times.
Counselling
Counselling provides you with an opportunity to talk about how you feel, to become more self-aware, and to work towards a more satisfying and authentic life. The BACP website provides brief descriptions of commonly-used theoretical approaches.
With your counsellor, you can develop a trusting and supportive relationship within which you feel able to explore the problems you are facing. Your counsellor will help you to do this in ways which respect your values, abilities and culture.
It is important that you work with a counsellor with whom you feel comfortable.
Equine-assisted Therapy
Equine-assisted Therapy (EAT) involves working experientially with horses in a therapeutic context. It is used with individuals, couples or groups within counselling or coaching and can help to develop your awareness and learning. It may be used as a complete therapeutic approach in its own right or may comprise one element of the work you do with your counsellor/coach.
The work involves performing tasks with, and around, horses. However, the main objective is not the completion of the tasks; the focus is on the process of attempting each task, and what you feel, and become aware of, while you are doing it. By reflecting on what happens during a session (observing the horses, and describing what they are doing, how you perceive them and how you feel in relation to them), you can gain insight and understanding into yourself, your behaviour, your relationships and your environment, and can develop a clearer sense of who you are.
Supervision
Actuality Counselling offers a supervision service for qualified practitioners and trainees as well as organisational supervision for people working in other professions. My supervision work is essentially Person-centred. I aim to create a safe environment within which supervisees can be themselves, as human beings and as professionals, and to establish a supervisory relationship based on equality, acceptance, openness and empathy, and one which is professionally challenging.
EFT
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a safe complementary therapy which is based on the theory that negative emotions are caused by a disruption to the body's energy system. EFT contends that, in order to remove the negative responses, the energy imbalance must be addressed at the same time as the negative emotions.
The basic EFT technique involves holding a disturbing memory or emotion in mind while simultaneously tapping on a series of 13 points on the body; these correspond to the meridians used in acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
Coaching
Coaching provides an opportunity for you to work with another person and to focus exclusively on you and your life. Using a range of exercises, humour and role play (in fact, whatever it takes), I will challenge you to take a serious look at who you are and encourage you to move forward. I will listen to you and try to understand you, I will provoke you and support you; we will consider the past and learn from it in order to create a future; it will be fun and it will be serious, as we explore you and your environment, and discover who you might become and what you might achieve.
It is important to work with a coach with whom you feel comfortable. I offer an initial free session during which we can begin to get to know each other and consider the issues on which you might want to focus.
Online
Actuality Counselling's online service enables you to access counselling, supervision or coaching from anywhere in the world. This can be useful if you have restricted mobility, are very busy, live in an isolated area without access to a counsellor, are away from home or feel that you would find this way of working less intimidating.
You will need access to a computer with a webcam, a broadband connection and appropriate video software.
You should not consider online counselling if you are uncomfortable with computers, if you have a chronic mental illness requiring intense treatment or if you have a serious intention to hurt yourself or others.
Fees
Counselling: £50 per 50-minute session
EFT: £50 per session
Supervision: £65 per 1½-hours session and £55 per one-hour session.
Coaching: £55 per one-hour session
There is a 10% reduction for NHS employees and members of the British armed forces.
About me
I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and am on its Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I am also a qualified counselling supervisor and life coach. My counselling and supervision work is supervised regularly to ensure that I meet professional standards. I have worked in a variety of settings including private practice, as a staff counsellor with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and as an affiliate counsellor with various Employee Assistance Providers (providing counselling to several Government departments as well as to the private sector).