Erika Wiesenmueller-Potter

I have 20 years of professional experience and offer a safe and confidential space for self-exploration in the centre of Bath. I work with clients who present with anxiety, depression, stress, personal issues, low self-confidence, work-related and health problems, relationship and family issues, loss and bereavement.

I also see clients whose lives may not be burdened by distress but who wish to gain greater self-awareness.

I have extensive experience of working with undergraduates having worked for many years as a counselling staff member in the Bath University Student Counselling Service.

In my counselling practice I am particularly interested in the ever-evolving fields of Mindfulness, Compassion Focused Therapy, Positive Neuroplasticity and the neuroscience of emotions. I have extended my formative training with additional professional training in Positive Neuroplasticity and Compassion Focused Therapy. Both these approaches are affirmative and very effective in the work with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, excessive self-criticism and lack of self-confidence. Positive Neuroplasticity helps to develop lasting inner strengths and personal resilience while Compassion Focused Therapy helps to identify and deal with negative self-talk that can and will in many cases over time seriously undermine a person’s confidence.

Psychology has long known that the way we think and feel about ourselves profoundly affects our moods, our sense of self-worth, our confidence, or the lack of it and, how we deal with life generally. Gaining a deeper understanding and present awareness of our thoughts, feelings and actions that operate outside our conscious attention enables us to make lasting changes for the better.

Professional Experience

I have worked as a counsellor since 2001 with a broad range of personal issues and in many different settings including a GP surgery, at the Bath University Counselling Service, Bath City College Counselling Service, an Employee Assistant Programme for the Department of Work and Pensions and in Private Practice.

I offer counselling also in German.

Prior to becoming a counsellor I taught for 19 years in Higher and Secondary Education in Germany and the UK.

Training

Professional Courses in Positive Neuroplasticity with Rick Hanson, Ph.D; Compassion Focused Therapy with Prof. Paul Gilbert

Postgraduate Diploma in Humanistic and Integrative Counselling, Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling

MA in Modern History (Warwick University)

First State Exam in History and German, Göttingen University, West-Germany

Second State Exam in History and German, West-Germany, (equivalent to Post Graduate Certificate in Education)

Accredited Member with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)and registered on the BACP Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.

Practise in accordance with the ethical standards of BACP and take part in regular professional supervision for my clinical practice.

Committed to continuous professional development to keep up with the latest thinking in the field of therapy and psychology.