Sue Allen

I will be reviewing my availability at the end of April 2024.

Fees:

I charge £70 per session and am working online only.

Next Step: Please text or email in the first instance, and we can arrange an appointment time for a free 15-minute phone consultation and we can take it from there.

Life can be distressing or confusing at times especially during stress or change. I am a calm, warm, non-judgemental and experienced BACP Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist who can offer you time and support to reflect on the parts of your life which are difficult to make sense of.

Our work together will be exploratory and collaborative. You will find a supportive, listening space in which you can bring what’s troubling you and I’ll use my experience and knowledge to ask questions and offer reflections. This will help you to think outside your usual ways of thinking and feeling to gain deeper knowledge about yourself which will help you find a different point of view on your problems.

Sometimes in the work, we might use creative materials to help you to find ways to put into words some of the harder to express feelings. This might involve using story cards or other art materials. We would only use these with your agreement and if it felt that it might be useful. We might also use models such as the Drama Triangle, Life positions or Transactions which may really help you to get an understanding of yourself and your problems.

For some, EMDR, either as a stand-alone therapy or as part of the therapy may be the best way to assist with trauma memories. We will work together initially to develop a shared understanding of your problems and agree a way forward.

I work with adult individuals in-person and also offer EMDR online.

My primary training in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy is one in which I understand problems to be rooted in the past and the work will involve understanding the links between your past and today’s problems. Often our earliest experiences (or a trauma in adult life) lead us to our conclusions about ourselves, others and what is possible or not possible for us in our future.

EMDR is a psychotherapy approach approved by NICE to treat distressing or traumatic memories. Sometimes, the experience of trauma (such as accidents, abuse or violence) can be so overwhelming that the part of the brain that processes memories has not been able to work properly. The trauma memories are therefore stored in raw form, and are easily triggered, causing distress over and over again.

EMDR therapy aims to harness your own brain's memory networks enabling your brain to process the traumatic memories in a natural way, losing their painful intensity and enabling you to know that these are memories in the past.

As an experienced, qualified and BACP Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist I've undertaken further study in EMDR. Having qualified as an EMDR Therapist, I am now working towards a second Accreditation with EMDR UK.

For some, shorter-term work is needed. For others, longer-term exploratory and collaborative work is helpful in which the therapy relationship is central to the work.  We  may piece together the parts of your 'life map' which are feeding into your current problems so these elements become more visible to you, and therefore more accessible for you to change.

Sometimes painful buried feelings can emerge in the work and the therapy relationship can support you in this no matter which approach we use.

 Understanding your own process can transform how you feel and think about yourself and lead to connecting with your life in ways which are much more satisfying and rewarding.

It’s not unusual for people to feel uncertain, wary or anxious about a first session. It can feel dauting to talk to a stranger about the issues which may have been troubling you for a while, raising uncertainties about how you might put it into words or a fear of being judged. You may also feel uncertain about how it will work and what to expect. But don’t forget that I am here to help you express what the problem is and will help you through the process.

Our  inital 15 minute chat will give you an idea as to whether we can work together and the first session will also be an opportunity to get a feel for this approach to therapy. You might have some questions you want to ask. Some people write a list to remind them of what they want to talk about and for others, having a space to talk is helpful. There’s no ‘right way’ to do it. I will also be asking questions and getting a sense of what you need and what you’re looking for and assessing with you what is the best fit for you.

How long we work together is an ongoing conversation throughout the counselling and decided by you depending on what you want to change and where you wish to get to with it. Some people have a specific issue or incident which they wish to understand and shorter-term work can be suitable for this. Often a repeating theme or underlying process will emerge which will enable you to have a feel like you have a much better understanding of your situation.

For others, having the opportunity to be open ended about the therapy is helpful as it’s not always clear at the beginning of therapy what the core underlying issue is which takes time to emerge in the sessions.