Lorraine Brown

My availability: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays daytime.

Tuesday evenings (fortnightly) and Thursday evenings (latest booking 7pm).

In order to ensure a  healthy work / life balance, I only respond to enquiries Mon - Fri between 8am and 7pm. 

I am a qualified clinical supervisor. I currently have space for supervisees either online or face to face in Ashburton or Chudleigh (Newton Abbot area).

I am a trauma-informed cognitive behavioural therapist and integrative counsellor. I work with adults and young people (16 years and above) both online and face to face. I have undertaken training in a wide range of counselling modalities. 

In addition to my private counselling practice, I work in a mental health crisis service within the NHS and as Counselling Lead with a local cancer charity. I also teach on counselling, psychology and mental health courses in higher education.

I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP) and abide by their Code of Ethics and practices. I undertake Continuous Professional Development and regular clinical supervision.

I work in private practice with adults and young people. My specialisms are in working with complex trauma, severe depression and anxiety disorders including: social anxiety, health anxiety, phobias and OCD. The foundation of my work is in relational, trauma informed and strengths-based approaches, incorporating mindfulness and compassion focused therapy. 

I also work 2 days per week counselling clients with a diagnosis of a blood cancer. 

If you would like to have an informal initial chat to see if I am the right supervisor for you, please contact me and I will respond within two working days.

I offer an initial FREE 20 minute video-conferencing call for you to decide whether I am the right supervisor for you. 

Thereafter, sessions are £40 for one hour and £50 for 1.5 hours.

I am available Mondays and Tuesdays, both daytime and evenings, and also Wednesday and Thursday evenings (latest booking 7pm).

In order to ensure a healthy work / life balance, I only respond to enquiries Mon - Fri between 8am and 7pm.

Sometimes life can be hard. I recognise that we are all unique and your reasons for seeking therapy will be as individual as you are.

Finding a counsellor that you can connect well with can make a real difference to how you feel and how you manage what is difficult for you.

I am a qualified, trauma-informed, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, Integrative Counsellor and Mindfulness Teacher. I draw on many different counselling approaches which allows me to work in a holistic and unique way with each individual. 

There is no ' one size fits all ' approach to therapy, thus I am constantly learning and developing my practice to incorporate new research findings and to ensure I am working within best practice guidelines.

I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and as such I am regulated by their Code of Ethics and practices. I undertake Continuous Professional Development and regular clinical supervision.

In addition to my private counselling practice, I work in a mental health service within the NHS and also volunteer for a not-for-profit counselling service.

 What to expect from counselling

Thinking about seeing a counsellor at any time in life can often feel daunting. The initial reaching out is the hardest step to take. It's normal to feel nervous to begin with. Coming to therapy allows you to talk over your problems in a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space, helping you to make sense of things and work towards the changes you would like to make in your life.

My offer to you

• A warm, safe, confidential space where you can explore your difficulties openly.

• A professional and genuine relationship with me to facilitate reflection, self-awareness and growth.

• Flexibility to help you find ways to improve your well-being, confidence and sense of calm.

I will work alongside you at your own pace, supporting you to draw on your strengths and resources, helping you to feel more connected to your life in a meaningful way.

As an integrative counsellor, I will often suggest using a range of different therapeutic approaches. Examples include:

• Behavioural Activation for Depression: goal setting, activity scheduling, developing healthy self-care for mind and body. This helps to kick-start motivation and pleasurable feelings that depression can rob us of.

• Positive Psychology: gratitude journaling, noticing three positive things each day and listing our strengths can all help to improve mood.

• Grounding exercises for Anxiety: soothing breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, controlled exposure to fears, psychoeducation on the fight, flight or freeze responses, and soothing place imagery can all help to calm down the threat response.

• Safety exercises for Trauma: finding your anchors of safety and stabilisation, building your self-soothing toolkit, learning distress tolerance skills and how to manage your emotions.

• Narrative Therapy can be used to re-write your trauma memories as a narrative or story. This allows you to make sense of your experiences, updating the narrative with the insight and reflection gained from the present. 

• Mindfulness skills for learning to step back from distressing thoughts and feelings and be fully open to the present moment. Mindfulness is an evidence-based treatment for a wide range of difficulties.

• Compassionate Mind training teaches us how to draw on our innate capacity for self-compassion by developing a relationship with our Compassionate Self. This is very helpful for addressing guilt, shame and self-criticism.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy teaches us to understand the links between our thoughts, sensations, emotions and behaviour. By making changes to our thoughts and behaviour we can break the vicious cycle of anxiety and low mood.

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) sees each person as possessing an internal family of ‘parts’ that often take on a protective role. By opening up a dialogue with the parts, we can help them to become fully integrated.

Concessionary rate for first session

One of the most important aspects of counselling is the relationship between counsellor and client. I therefore offer a concessionary rate of £20 for the first hourly session. 

We'll go through all the practicalities, such as payment, cancellations, appointment times and so on. I'll discuss the counselling contract with you, including confidentiality. You can tell me a little about your reasons for seeking counselling at this time. You can also ask questions to help you decide whether I am the right therapist for you. 

You don't need to make any commitments and there is absolutely no pressure to book further sessions unless it feels right for you.