Welcome
Everyone needs a PLACE2TALK
Divorce, separation, job loss, bereavements and difficulties in relationships can lead to emotional suffering, anxiety and stress. Adverse childhood experiences, trauma and abuse (recent or historic) can cause suffering and confusion resulting in deep pain that can negatively affect mental well-being.
Counselling can help you navigate the difficulties that are causing emotional and mental suffering and provide support as you work towards building a more fulfilled and contented life. Counselling provides the opportunity to gain perspective and helps you consider how you would like to move forward in life. It can also help you understand yourself and others better, leading to a clearer understanding of your challenges.
Life and well-being coaching are powerful tools for personal growth, helping you to navigate challenges, gain clarity, and align your actions with your true values. Whether you're facing difficult decisions, seeking greater fulfillment, or striving to reach your full potential, coaching offers a supportive space to explore your goals and overcome obstacles. Through this process, you'll reassess limiting beliefs, resolve inner conflicts, and develop a clearer sense of purpose. With a focus on self-discovery and practical strategies, coaching empowers you to create positive change and build a life that reflects your aspirations.
My focus is to work with you to develop the strategies and skills that will reduce and alleviate the negative impact of the difficulties affecting your day-to-day life. This can lead to positive changes for you, your family, your work life, and your relationships resulting in improved mental health and greater enjoyment of life.
Shame is a common theme, often stemming from childhood. It is associated with many negative emotions, such as feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem and can lead to substance use, self-harm and suicidal behaviours. More often than not, shame leads to disconnection, from yourself and your emotions and also from others, leading to isolation. Living with shame can be lonely and demoralising however, healing the wounds of shame is possible.
My counselling room is located in Bournemouth, BH10 and is easily accessible from Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and surrounding areas.
I work 1-1, with individuals aged 16+, by appointment only.
I also work online throughout the UK and abroad.
CONTACT ME to book an intro call
ABOUT ME
MBACP & MACC Registered Counsellor, Clinical Trauma Professional, Life and Wellbeing Coach
Working in a Neurodiverse affirming way I have specialised experience in working with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), Anxiety, Attachment Issues, Pregnancy & Infant Loss, Sexual Trauma & Rape, Domestic Violence and Pre-Trial support.
I am experienced working with a wide range of issues, including: anxiety, bereavement (previously a CRUSE bereavement volunteer), work stress, relationship issues & life transitions (divorce, separation, redundancy, retirement), low self-esteem, past childhood abuse, emotional neglect, chronic illness, PMS/PMDD/menopause, nightmares, trauma, self-harm, panic attacks, issues relating to spirituality.
My focus is on providing support to help you build resilience and gain deeper insight into the factors impacting your mental well-being. By understanding and addressing these challenges, we will work collaboratively towards improving your emotional and mental health. Integrating CBT, Person Centred, and attachment theory and elements of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Systemic Theory enables me to create a personalised experience, specific to you.
Alongside my work at PLACE2TALK, I also work as a counsellor at STARS, a specialised Sexual Trauma Agency in Dorset, where I provide support to clients who have experienced recent sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse or domestic violence. I am also an associate counsellor at Poole Therapies where, amongst other clients, I work with students completing their MA/PhD research while on international placements.
Before training as a counsellor, I worked as the Family Liaison Officer for Family Counselling Trust (Dorset) and before that I was a swimming teacher. My working life has previously included roles as a Registered Midwife and Registered General Nurse.
I am married with a grown-up family, and love living on the South Coast of England, where I enjoy walking my springer spaniel along the beach and in the surrounding countryside.
CONTACT ME to book an intro call
Services
These are just some of the areas/concerns I work with
Counselling can provide you with tools and strategies to understand and manage your anxiety. I use evidence-based approaches, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), to help identify and challenge irrational or negative thought patterns. Relaxation techniques, coping strategies, and problem-solving skills will help you address the root causes of their anxiety and develop healthier responses to stressors.
Life and wellbeing coaching can help you achieve a balanced and fulfilling life. Exploring and aligning with your core values can enhance your overall quality of life. It supports you to overcome challenges, set meaningful goals, and develop healthy habits. Addressing limiting beliefs and improving self-care, coaching empowers you to create positive change, leading to a life that promotes physical and mental well-being.
Compassionate support to identify underlying issues and build healthy coping strategies enabling a more positive perspective on life. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), helps to identify and change negative thought patterns contributing to depression. Additionally, addressing relationship issues and improving social support can play a significant role in alleviating depressive symptoms.
Grief and bereavement are normal experiences however they can also be isolating and confusing. Counselling can provide you with a safe and supportive environment to express your feelings, which may include sadness, anger, guilt, and confusion. Your grief and loss are personal and unique to you. Counselling can help you to process your loss, and re-establish healthy coping mechanisms for healing.
Counselling can be extremely effective in helping manage and reduce panic attacks. We’ll work together to understand what’s behind them and how to spot the early signs. Identifying ways of coping, like breathing techniques or grounding exercises, so you can start feeling more in control when panic hits. The aim is to help you feel calmer and more confident in your everyday life, with fewer and less intense panic attacks over time.
These losses can be incredibly isolating and can result in a range of complex feelings such as anxiety, hopelessness, guilt, anger, and sadness. I will seek to provide you with the crucial emotional support and a safe space to process the grief and complex emotions following pregnancy or infancy loss. Counselling can offer a safe place to navigate your feelings, helping to restore hope and find your path towards healing.
As a Trauma specialist (CCTP), I use a trauma-informed approach to support and empower you to regain a sense of control and reduce the distressing symptoms such as anxiety, flashbacks, and hypervigilance. Counselling can help you build resilience, develop healthier coping mechanisms, and develop self-compassion and crucially can facilitate transformation and personal growth.
Reducing the impact of shame whether it stems from past experiences, self-perceptions, or societal pressures. Counselling can help you to clarify and reassess your beliefs about yourself, resolve inner conflicts, and develop a healthier sense of identity and increase your self-worth. Working on values and understanding boundaries are essential elements of overcoming the negative & debilitating aspects shame.
Supporting you as you navigate your spiritual journey by providing a safe and non-judgmental space to clarify beliefs, resolve inner conflicts, and find a sense of peace and fulfilment. Counselling can be crucial following spiritual abuse, facilitating healing by processing traumatic experiences, rebuilding trust in your spiritual beliefs, and empowering you to move forward on a path of healing and growth.
FEES
£60 per session
In-person
I have a calm, comfortable, and private room. Free parking is available. There are two steps at the entrance of the property, and my room is on the ground floor.
Online
I will send a link to my secure web room. No software to download. Sessions can be online every week or can be occasional if you are unable to attend an in-person session.
Telephone
Telephone counselling provides an opportunity to explore a personal difficulty without the need to travel. We can arrange a one-off telephone session if needed.
CONTACT
Contact me for my availability kay@place2talk.co.uk 07858 984519
We will need to arrange a time for a 15 minute phone call to discuss your needs (this is free of charge). During the phone call, you can give me a brief outline of what is bringing you to counselling so that I can check if I am the right counsellor to work with you. You can also ask questions about how I work to help you decide if you would like to work with me. We can decide whether to work together in-person or online.
Following the call, you are not obligated to book a session. However, if I am able to offer you a mutually acceptable date and time to start your counselling sessions, I will endeavour to hold the session time for 72 hours if possible.
Your contact information is treated as confidential and not used by third parties. Please let me know on the form if you have a preferred method for me to reply.
I'm in crisis, I need to talk now
Alternatively organisations who can speak with you now are listed below.
Samaritans: Free call 116 123
SANEline: 0300 304 7000
Papyrus HOPELINEUK: 0800 068 4141 (suicide prevention)
SHOUT - Text Support Service: 85258
National Domestic Violence Freephone 24 Hour Helpline 0808 2000 247/Text: NCDV to 60777
F.A.Q.
Are you qualified?
Qualifications & professional registration
- BA Hons Counselling - Middlesex University
- DipHE Counselling - Middlesex University
- MBACP Registered Member 402110
- ACC Registered Member R001502
- Psychology Today Profile
2024
- PESI - Attachment Theory in Clinical Practice: Transforming Development Deficits and Building Secure Attachment
- PESI - Finding Meaning in Loss: The Sixth Stage of Grief
- TRANSFORMATION Services - Professional Life Coach
- SANDS - Counselling parents and families following pregnancy loss and the death of a baby
- MAKE BIRTH BETTER- Birth Trauma Training Programme
- BEAT - ARFID Workshop
- NEDDE - Understanding and Managing ARFID, PDA and PICA Disorders
- BIELEC CONSULTANCY - Domestic Abuse, Coercive Controlling Behaviour & Stalking
- COLLABORATIVE COUNSELLING ACADEMY LTD - Working with Shame in the Therapy Room
- (MUSS) REWIND Technique
- Safeguarding Level 3
- Working with suicide, intervention & prevention
- Applying Attachment Theory
- Strength-based Interventions to Thrive with ADHD from Childhood to Adulthood
- Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) Across Clinical Applications
- Treating Trauma with IFS: Procedures for Healing Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, and more
- Single-session therapy
- Gaslighting: Rebuild from a Narcissist's Emotional Abuse
- JANINA FISCHER - Trauma Treatment Certification Training (CCTP)
- CHRISTIANE SANDERSON - Intensive Course in Trauma-Informed Practice: Treating Complex PTSD
- PESI: Pregnancy and Infant Loss: Strategies to Support Grief and Treat Trauma
- BLUESTAR- Pre-Trial Therapy Training Programme
- CPCAB: Trauma Informed Practice
- PACT - Working with Gestalt techniques
- Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model
- PACT - Working Creatively with Nesting Dolls in Counselling
- PACT - Attachment and Shame
- PACT - Building Boundaries Breaking Barriers
- Telephone and E-counselling
- BACP/OU Counselling online
- CRUSE: Bereavement Support Training
- Safeguarding, Level 2
Extra
- Enhanced DBS
- Insurance
- ICO Registered
What is counselling like?
Our first session together will include an initial assessment, which may involve exploring your history, relationships (past and present), and mental wellbeing. We will also discuss your goals and expectations so that, together, we can determine the most appropriate course of action. We will agree to regularly review your goals and progress. During your sessions, we will work together to explore and address your concerns and work towards achieving your goals. We may talk about emotions, relationships and experiences, practice different coping techniques and strategies, set goals, and create action plans.
Your counselling sessions will normally be booked for the same day and time every week. However, I will seek to offer flexibility, if possible. Counselling can be short or long term. After our initial appointment you can book a regular time slot very week.
Counselling can cover any life-area, at times it can feel a bit like untangling a giant knotted ball of string, so determination and commitment are often required. It can take a bit of time to ‘settle’ into the process and it’s important to know that as we work together through issues and emotions, it can, at times, feel as though things are getting worse. For most people this feeling is temporary and most people begin to experience progressive improvement to their well-being.
What is coaching like?
Our first session will focus on understanding your current situation, identifying your aspirations, and setting clear, achievable goals. We will explore your strengths, challenges, and any barriers that may be holding you back. Together, we will create a customised action plan that outlines the steps you need to take to move forward. We will regularly review your progress and adjust the plan as needed to ensure that you stay on track.
Coaching sessions are typically scheduled on a regular basis, often weekly or bi-weekly, to maintain momentum and provide consistent support. However, I strive to offer flexibility to accommodate your schedule and needs. Coaching can be short-term, focusing on specific goals, or long-term, allowing for deeper exploration and sustained growth.
Coaching can cover a wide range of areas, from career development and leadership to personal growth and life transitions. The process may involve identifying limiting beliefs, building confidence, enhancing skills, and creating strategies to overcome challenges. At times, the journey may feel challenging as you step out of your comfort zone, but this is often where the most significant growth occurs.
It’s important to approach coaching with commitment and an open mind, as the process requires active participation and a willingness to embrace change. While it may take time to see results, most clients experience a sense of progress and empowerment as they work towards their goals.
How do I pay?
You can block book your sessions if that is helpful.
Subject to availability you can book different days/times each week to accommodate shift work or other responsibilities.
If you are unable to attend a booked session, please notify me as soon as possible and I will seek to find an alternative date/time.
Late notifications, within 24 hours of your appointment, will be charged the full fee.
I am occasionally able to offer reduced fee sessions, for students or those on low income. Please contact me to enquire if I have any availability to offer this.
Is there parking?
Please do not park on the driveway as access is required.
Is there a waiting room?
Can I bring someone with me to my sessions?
If you have children you will need to make arrangements for them to be cared for whilst you are at your session appointment.
If a family member or friend is driving you to your appointment, they are welcome to wait in their car outside of the building or there are some cafes nearby where they could buy a drink.
