Keith Baker

I have availability to see clients on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Between 9.30am and 7pm.

Thinking about counselling can be daunting task!

Are these the questions you are asking yourself, to work out what would help you or someone you love?

Your Questions

1. What’s the right kind of counselling for me?

2. Is the person good enough, strong enough, have enough experience?

3. Do they look like a person I could grow to feel safe with?

These are the most common key questions that are probably going through your head.

My Answers

One.

Most importantly is that you feel safe, and the therapists way of working is flexible in meeting all of you. What I mean by that is we are complex. How we think, feel, behave with ourselves and others, is often complex and contradictory. Navigating this in my experience is best done with a combination of empathy combined with a range of approaches that can be tailored to you. 

Two.

As a counsellor working with adoptive families, I have often been there to help with the consequences of abuse, violence and much more while helping children and families, navigate and process their own trauma. I have supported a great deal of children and adults with Autistic spectrum difficulties, ADD/HD, PTSD, addiction, anxiety and depression. Over 24 years as a social worker and counsellor, I have learnt and adapted to a large variety of groups and individuals. One size doesn’t fit all, which is why over the years, my therapeutic tool bag has become well developed, so I can adopt to you not the other way round.

Three.

This is a surprising common question that people think about when they are looking for a counsellor, and one that’s hard to answer, my advise is speak to them as well as get a sense of them from their picture. This is why I offer a 30 free consultation, so you can get your questions answered about any aspect of the way I work, but also get a feel for me and if that’s potentially a good fit for you.

My personal therapeutic journey has been eclectic, and this diversity I have brought to my work as a counsellor and neurofeedback therapist. I have developed skills in person-centered counselling, Focusing, Thought Field Therapy (TFT), therapeutic play, behavioral and cognitive approaches, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, As well as various neurofeedback approaches. This is supported by the understanding and experience of using systemic approaches while I was a social worker.

What this means in practice is I can adapt to you and the way you think and feel, in a variety of way.

I have been qualified as a counsellor for 13 years, and a neurofeedback therapist for 8 years. I came across neurofeedback from reading “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk, and his highly successful experiences of using it in his trauma center in Boston MA. At first I thought neurofeedback was weird and to good to be true, but my research and personal experience proved to me this was an amazing way of working.

When I use neurofeedback with counselling, I use a system called LENS which due to the short time it needs, means that the counselling part of the session is usually about 45 minutes. 

Neurofeedback can make you feel a bit tired, as we are taking your brain to the gym.  So it's good not to plan anything that requires you to do complex cognitive tasks for the rest of the day.

Practicalities

I work from, my tranquil garden office, which is in Stonehouse.

There is a parking space on my drive.

Unfortunately I have no disabled access.

As I offer three options for people, so I offer a free 30 minute consultation to understand the challenges you face and to see how I can help most effectively.

Counselling

There is a basic bit of paperwork to do (details and consent form) this can be done either before you come or on the first session whatever you would prefer.

Counselling with Neurofeedback

There is a bit more form filling as we are training your brain waves, so most people prefer to do this prior to the first session. But if you really struggle with forms we can do this on the first session.

Neurofeedback without Counselling

This is more complicated, and so the forms are a bit more complicated. so these would need to be done before you come for the 2 hour assessment session. All follow on sessions are 1 hour.

Fees: All sessions are charged at £80, the only exception to this is the Neurofeedback without counselling assessment session, which is £160 as it takes approximately 2 hrs.