Mary Wallace

My main working times are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday mornings - but I can discuss availability outside these times.

HEALTH INSURANCE RECOGNISED 

If you are struggling to cope with life, feeling worn down or finding your relationships are under strain, counselling can help. Living throws up difficulties for all of us and we can feel very alone when confronted with these. Stress, anxiety, grief or depression can throw us off track. If you are feeling unhappy, anxious or lost, I can help you work through your concerns and emotions to a place where you can feel peace and pleasure again.  

Counselling is a place where you can talk privately about your life and your relationships.  Some people use this space to:

• express feelings or thoughts that they don’t feel able to express anywhere else
• work out how they feel and what they think about important events or situations in their life
• work through issues that are affecting their relationships and consider how to move forward
• explore a problem and perhaps the different options they have [or which a counsellor might suggest] for dealing with that problem
• take time out from difficult situations or feelings
• learn better ways for coping with difficult emotions or situations

I will do my best to understand what is happening for you and offer both the space for you to be heard and ideas about how you might change your situation. It can really help to talk over your experiences and explore your emotions with someone who isn't involved and who can offer support and perhaps a different perspective.

HEALTH INSURANCE RECOGNISED

I am an experienced and accredited member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, seeing clients face to face. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about working with me via email.  I accept clients covered by a number of national health insurers. 

I have worked for nearly thirty years helping people identify the blocks that are holding them back so that they can move forward to achieve their potential and make stronger, more satisfying relationships. I have undertaken both my base counselling training to Master's degree level and ongoing training in a range of specialist issues, including helping with depression, anxiety, trauma, supporting survivors of childhood abuse and working ethically and safely online.

I am committed to anti-discriminatory practice and to ongoing training to better understand the ways that prejudice and inequalities in society can impact on mental health and emotional well-being. I encourage my clients to challenge me if you feel I am misunderstanding you or if I lack appropriate knowledge that would aid your recovery and growth. I promise to be transparent if I realise that I do not have the right skills to meet your needs, referring you on where possible to someone else who can. I see counselling as a place where we can talk about the things that are hard and may feel impossible to talk about elsewhere and I welcome you to bring any aspect of your experience to our work together.

I offer your first session at a reduced flat rate of £35 so you can have a chance to assess whether I will be a good fit for you.  This session is very like any session we might have after this - although I may need to ask a few more questions than usual to understand your situation better.  It's a chance for you to begin to describe and express your concerns and for us to discuss ways in which working with me may help.  I promise to tell you if I think I'm not the best therapist for you and to make recommendations for where else you might look if I can.

I have a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy Supervision based on seven months of study and formal assessment; in addition, I have over ten years experience of supporting and managing helping professionals in education and counselling; I have worked with both adults and young people. I offer supervision to qualified and trainee counsellors or psychotherapists, as well as others working closely with vulnerable people in educational or care settings. I am trained in the Hawkins's and Shohet's model, 'Supervision in the Helping Professions', a strongly systemic framework which offers levels of enquiry and exploration at the many different levels of relationship that exist between counsellors and their clients and between supervisor and supervisee, as well as the wider contexts these exist within.

I am an accredited member of the BACP, working within its ethical framework, and I hold a Diploma in Counselling Psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University and a MA in Counselling Studies from The University of Manchester, both gained with Distinction. I work eclectically from a humanistic perspective, valuing curiosity, relational depth and Mick Cooper's concept of 'welcoming the other' (2009). I have experience of working with both adults and young people and on both a short and long term basis.

​I believe that supervision needs to be a creative collaboration between the supervisee and myself and that the quality of the relationship we create together is fundamental to this. I will do all I can to offer you a relationship based on empathy, respect and congruity where we can explore your experience of working with your clients and create creative ways forward.

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I offer supervision to qualified and trainee counsellors; I have experience in supporting students through their Diploma courses and am recognised by local colleges.  I also have experience in offering supervision to educational and social care professionals.

I can work with you in person or online.

I offer a free half-an-hour face to face or online session where we can answer each other's questions and get a sense of how working together might feel.