About Sarah
My Training
I hold an Fd Sc Degree in Humanistic counselling, accredited by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and I qualified in 2013.
I am a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and work under the guidelines of the BACP Ethical frame work, which ensures that I offer a safe and ethical service to you.
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​​I have monthly supervision, and continue to further my learning by attending regular CPD (continual professional development)and I believe that ongoing education will benefit my practice.
My Approach
I am non-judgmental in my approach, working with you to achieve your goals. I work integratively, and will draw on what ever counselling skills suit you best.
I have extensive experience supporting people with addiction, loss, trauma, bereavement, relationship difficulties, depression, childhood trauma, and sexual abuse.
My Background & Experience
​My counselling journey started when I worked at Step by Step, an organisation who ran hostels for homeless young people between the ages of 15 to 18. I worked on the employment and education programme helping young people coming out of the care system. My role was to support them in finding apprenticeships, employment, college courses, or university. Whilst there, like all the staff, I was encouraged to start an introductory course in counselling. I loved the course and was hooked.
I moved on to work at a charity called Southern Addictions Advisory Service (SADAS) supporting people who were hitting hard times. Very often they were homeless with a heavy addiction to heroin, crack, and or alcohol. I worked as an outreach worker visiting people who found themselves street homeless and those who were living in hostels. SADAS also ran drop-in centres and I worked with clients who wanted relief from the relentless chaos that their addiction caused, offering harm reduction on a one-to-one basis.
Trauma and poor mental health had a big part to play in the lives of the people we were supporting, and once these men and women were able to stop using they were able to access the counselling service that SADAS had to offer. I knew that I wanted to be a part of that team. Once qualified I worked as a volunteer counsellor for SADAS.
I also worked as a drug and alcohol specialist in a women’s centre for the charity Women in Prison, supporting women in the criminal justice system, and supporting women who were vulnerable to domestic violence and abuse. A small counselling service was set up when the centre received funding, and I volunteered as a counsellor in the evenings.
I moved to Hay-on-Wye in 2017. Before setting up in private practice, I worked for Hafan Cymru, a charity that offers support to vulnerable families in Llandrindod and Brecon, Addaction a drug and alcohol agency in Hereford, and I volunteered at Marches Counselling Service a charity counselling service in Hereford.
I have now been in private practice since 2019.