My name is Allison Brown and I offer a range of therapeutic services in
West Yorkshire. The service covers individual counselling for adults and
young people as well as supervision and service consultancy work.
I have extensive experience including working with bereavement,
suicide and self harm as well issues surrounding self development
and relationships. I have worked within staff support in large
organisations and my MA is in managing change within organisations.
I have counselling experience within student services at Universities,
hospices and the voluntary sector including the Samaritans.
I adopt an integrative approach to therapy that can be tailored to
individual needs ranging from understanding past experiences through
to a coaching approach that may help with current issues and planning
for future change.
I have 5 years experience of working as a school counsellor, and 6
years experience of managing school based counselling services. I
also work as a clinical lead for CAMHS services in West Yorkshire.
I am a fully qualified counsellor, and am a senior accredited member
of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
and work to their code of ethics. My senior accreditation is for my
work with children and young people and indicates a level of
experience that is recognised by this professional body. I also have
Enhanced criminal records bureau disclosures that are required for
any person working with children and young people and I hold a full
level of insurance to cover my work.
SERVICES
THE SERVICES I OFFER
Adult counselling
I am a senior accredited member of the British Association for Counselling
and Psychotherapy (BACP) and this gives you confidence that my work is
ethical and offered within safe clinical boundaries. Therapy may be
requested to consider the past, as well as current challenges in life and
is about empowering and supporting people to understand experiences and to
consider choices and make changes in their lives if appropriate.
Therapists do not possess magic wands and good therapy is by no means a
passive process. In many cases therapy can be challenging, but challenging
in a safe and supportive way where the direction is always taken from you.
If you are interested in arranging therapy sessions please contact me for
an initial discussion.
Current fees are £45 per session, or £50 if sessions are
required 6pm onwards. All my work is governed by the BACP Ethical
Framework for accredited therapists.
Counselling for young people
I offer therapy for young people aged 12 and over, normally with parental
consent. I have experience working with young people in school, college
and University who have experienced a wide range of difficulties in their
lives. I currently manage a school based counselling service for a third
sector organisation and am a clinical lead for a Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Service (CAMHS). This ensures that I understand the needs
of young people in therapy and am able to offer tailor-made therapeutic
solutions that are based around individual needs.
Parents or carers may attend the initial session. Subsequent sessions
are usually with the young person alone and remain confidential. Young
people are able to request parental involvement and information sharing
if required.
Fees are currently £45 per session, or £50 if sessions are
required after 6pm. All my work is governed within the BACP Ethical
Framework for accredited therapists.
Individual supervision
My supervision training is based around a Transactional analysis view of
supervision that builds on the Hawkins and Shohet model. I believe that
as with good therapy, good supervision demands a quality of relationship
where the real challenges of client work can be explored in their full
depth.
BACP have put in place a set of core compentencies in specific relation
to supervising therapeutic work with children and young people. They
recommend that supervisors hold their own experience of working with
this client group. I have 8 years experience of supervising therapists
who work with adults, couples, children and young people in a wide range
of counselling settings.
My experience includes many years working as a school therapist in over
twelve individual schools, both primary and secondary. I have built up
thousands of hours working therapeutically with children, young people
and adults. I manage a school counselling service, and work privately
with children and young people if requested. I am the clinical lead for
a CAMHS service, managing risk and complexity within therapeutic work.
Fees are currently £75 per 1.5 hours, or £50 per hour of
supervision. If you are a trainee therapist or are providing therapy
in a voluntary capacity and are arranging your own supervision please
contact me directly to negotiate a reduced rate.
Additional services
Group supervision
I offer group supervision on a tailor-made basis dependent on
specific service and organisational requirements. Supervision within
a group setting can bring together the benefits of strong reflective
practice as well as peer discussion and collaborative thinking.
For services, a group supervision approach in conjunction with
individual supervision can enhance a service approach to the
therapeutic work as well as providing space for peer support around
casework. Similar processes can be helpful for groups of therapists
who want a facilitated approach to enhance their overall supervision
provision. Groups can have a specific client group in mind, for
example adolescents, or can be structured around specific group
requirements.
Group supervision and reflective practice sessions can also be
established in schools or within your own organisations and are not
restricted to therapists. Anyone working with mental health
presentations and emotional health can request group facilitation
which can be provided on site if appropriate.
Consultancy
I offer therapy service setup and development consultancy. I have
specific experience setting up counselling services in schools and
for children and young people. Consultation can include policy
development, service delivery and advice around new services and
existing services undergoing change.
Please contact me directly for any proposals and costing required
either for group processes or consultancy work.
TESTIMONIALS
TESTIMONIALS
The following comments are just some that have been kindly given by
clients and supervisees for use on this website and I appreciate that
people have allowed me to use them in this way - Thank you to you all,
Allison.
Testimonials from clients
It is hard to convey how Allison has helped me, without
writing an essay! She is incredibly understanding and insightful and
has gently guided me through very painful experiences, helping me to
face them, understand them and put them into perspective. I feel as
though I have been on a life changing journey. It hasn't been easy, but
it's been worth it. I could not have done this without Allison's help.
Allison's patient listening and insightful questions gave me the space I
needed to sort out some 'old history' and find healing.
Allison provided a safe but gently challenging environment which allowed me
to be honest with myself about my feelings.
Allison is a very warm person who puts you at ease immediately. I felt
comfortable with her and had no hesitation in bringing issues forward
which she helped me to explore and gain a deeper understanding of me as
a person and what I wanted from life. She is very empowering. As a
counsellor in training, I found her to be an excellent role model and I
learned a great deal from her. I hope to be as good as her one day.
Thank you.
I'd like to thank you for your help & have really appreciated your
support over the last few months
Allison's counselling skills have supported me through some very
difficult times in my life. She has helped me address painful issues and
move forward and I would recommend counselling to anyone out there who
feels they need a helping hand with life. I can't thank you enough,
Allison.
I wasn't sure what to expect at first but Allison was very understanding.
I found it very worthwhile and would recommend people to give it a try - I
feel much calmer and in control now.
Thank you for all your support - words cannot explain how much it means to
me.
I wanted to say a big thank you for all the help - I am now feeling more
confident and comfortable and it's been good to talk about things that
I've bottled up for years.
Allison is a very approachable and caring counsellor. I instantly felt
at ease with her. I never felt daft discussing anything with her and
she has really helped me through a tough time.
Thank you Allison. Your calm and perceptive approach has helped me to
regain confidence and to take control of my life, once more. Most of all,
you enabled me to listen to myself and to trust my own judgement again.
Allison has been a fantastic help and support to me in the last six
months. I had a lot of deep-rooted personal issues that needed to be
addressed. Talking to Allison has helped me address and understand
how to overcome them. Her calm and non-judgemental approach made it easier
for me to talk.
I would strongly recommend Allison to anyone that is thinking of having
counselling. The only regret I have is I left it too late - Oh, and this is
a 35 year old man, so counselling really is for anyone!
Working with Allison is enabling me to address a number of issues that have
been impacting on every aspect of my life. The difference in my relationships
and how I am able to experience situations is significant.
Counselling sessions with Allison are enabling and empowering, allowing me
to see topics of discussion in a new light. I feel able to explore issues
with Allison I may be reluctant or unwilling to with friends or family.
Talking to her gives me the space and time to identify problems and to reach
my own decisions regarding how to deal with them.
Allison creates just the right safe and secure environment for you to talk,
cry and think. Counselling isn't easy but you will leave feeling better
for it; that a weight has been lifted and that the hurt is unravelling. I
recommend Allison without hesitation.
I've found Allison to be extremel supportive and warm. My sessions with
her have helped 'move me forward'.
Allison was a great help to me when I felt I was at my lowest point, and
taught me ways to deal with it and gave me lots of positives about myself
when I don't think I had any.
Testimonials from supervisees
If you are looking for a supervisor I would really welcome you to
contact Allison. I feel very fortunate to have had her to turn to
whenever I needed support. It is a rare quality to be able to bring so
effectively such a breadth of experience and level of understanding
into a role. I could point to many ways this has made a difference to
my life as a counsellor. It is such a comfort to know that whatever I
have to work through Allison will know where I'm coming from and engage
with a 'process' that seems to put clarity where there was confusion
and confidence where there was self-doubt.
I would describe my supervision sessions as being engaging, supportive
and thought-provoking. I always feel listened to and never judged. I
find it a very valuable process.
Allison is an experienced and extremely competent supervisor. She is
always able to create a space within which I can reflect on my
practice. She has a natural and warm professional manner and is able
to provide support and challenge appropriately. Her suggestions for
further resources or reading to support my practice has been
invaluable too. Supervision from Allison enables me to manage my own
relational responses as well as providing me with the mechanisms I
need to maintain the safest and most competent practitice I can for
my clients.
Allison is supportive but questioning and has allowed me a safe space
to reflect on my practice and experiences in my career. I have
developed as a confident therapist over the time we have worked
together.
