Kim Mitchell

I am a qualified and experienced counsellor offering a calm and confidential setting to meet the challenges you may be facing in life. Whether you need a space to share your current situation or to process a past experience, I offer a therapeutic relationship of acceptance and compassion.

Sometimes we feel stuck or distressed. It can be hard to find a way through such challenges alone. What I offer is a collaboration in working through those difficulties.

Since qualifying in 2008, I have worked in both voluntary and charitable sectors and volunteered within the NHS. I am accredited with the BACP, and work as an integrative counsellor (BSc Hons) meaning, I draw on multiple, different therapeutic approaches adapting how I work to what suits you best. I am also trained in EMDR therapy, a Family Systemic Practitioner, and trained in Level 2 Internal Family Systems Therapy.

I have specialist skills in dealing with Trauma and complex family relationships. I have experience of contributing to level 4 diploma training on the subject of racialised trauma.

I also have several years experience of working with and delivering workshops to family members who support a loved one with addiction.

While I am an integrative counsellor, I am particularly focused on a compassion- focused approach. Compassion-focused therapy acknowledges that we all suffer due to evolution and life experiences, and that we develop safety strategies that are not always helpful to us in our day to day lives. Once we are able to stop criticising and blaming ourselves for the symptoms, thoughts and feelings associated with these unhelpful strategies, we can begin to develop self-compassion. In a more compassionate frame of mind, we can begin to develop ways to cope.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence based therapeutic model developed to create a more balanced and harmonious internal system, promote greater trust of Self and Self leadership. It allows parts of ourselves that carry burdens to be liberated from their burdens, for example shame or hurt from the past and choose a more balanced way of being.

I also offer Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR), an evidence-based therapy developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. It is now used to treat a wide range of mental health issues, helping to identify, process and desensitise challenging memories.

Together, we can identify what your goal is for therapy, and explore your options so you can make choices that suit you as an individual, and begin to develop more helpful and harmonious coping strategies for your future. I offer short and long-term therapeutic work.