Professional Profile

I am a self-employed counsellor, coach, supervisor and trainer with a high level of competence in facilitating change and communication and raising professional standards. I am skilled and experienced in counselling, coaching, and supervision and in training in counselling, educational and healthcare and workplace settings.

Counselling

• Counselling of individuals and couples who self refer
• Counselling of individuals referred by statutory agencies
• Counselling of individuals and couples referred by GP’s and other health care professionals
• Counselling of those undertaking counselling training
• Counselling is undertaken with individuals and couples presenting with a wide variety of difficulties
• An initial assessment if offered to ensure that counselling is appropriate.
• Brief, solution-focused therapy and longer term counselling is provided.

Supervision

• Clinical supervision of trainee and probationer counsellors and psychotherapists working towards accreditation
• Clinical supervision of qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and other professionals.
• Supervision of clinical managers on organisational and personnel issues
• Identifying learning needs, monitoring of professional competence, managing poor performance and effective caseload management
• Clarifying and promoting clinical and management accountability.
• Facilitating good working relationships between employer and employee and developing productive career progression.

Training and Teaching

• Training of counsellors to Advanced Diploma and Post Graduate level and teaching on counselling and educational programmes to Post Graduate level.
• Developing teaching and training packages for HE and FE colleges, voluntary agencies and the Healthcare Trust.
• Planning and implementing training and monitoring outcomes
• Coaching and mentoring of probationary professionals

Management and Workplace Consultancy

• Creating an environment that rewards collaboration, mutual support and achievment of goals
• Overcoming barriers to optimal work performance
• Leading a team by example, monitoring progress and generating ideas.
• Advising on the development of strategies, policies and procedures, appraisal processes and team development.
• Coaching interpersonal and conflict management

Brief Career History

I have worked as a self-employed counsellor, coach, supervisor, trainer and consultant since 1985.  Through this time I have sustained a thriving private practice alongside working with a variety of statutory agencies, educational and healthcare organisations and businesses.

Among  some of the things I have enjoyed creating and developing through these years are when:

I worked as a counsellor with the Cornwall Counselling Centre between 1990 and its closure in 2001 and during that time was also variously the Deputy Chair, Chair and Counselling Co-ordinator of the orgnisation.  As a counsellor I had the privilege of working with a wide variety of clients, many of whom could not pay a full fee.  It was an organisation whose primary model was psychodynamic and so  I had the opportunity of immersing myself in working from that perspective and working alongside a team of counselling and psychotherapy peers who were supportive, committed, and as excited as I by the work we were doing. Organisationally, working in the different posts as I did, I had the gift of gaining from the experience of working in a charity I was fully committed to, grappling with funding issues, encountering the then new world of contracting with the organisations who used the Centre and also, as Coordinator, carrying clinical accountability for the work done by the Centre.

When the Macmillan Service found funding to set up the first bereavement service within its countrywide service I was very fortunate to find myself in the postion of being part of the creation of this innovative extension to its work. For years before me joining Macmillan I had worked with the dying and bereaved and my thesis for my post-graduate diploma had centred on dying, so this opportunity was personally inspiring and professionally challenging.  I worked as a counsellor to those who were bereaved and as a supervisor to the Macmillan nurses for the counselling aspect of their work.  The project had a research component attached to it and that in itself was very interesting and at times, a challenge!!  Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of the work was in working with other professionals – teachers, nurses, doctors, consultants, supporting and encouraging them to work closely with the dying and bereaved and to break through what were largely accepted norms years ago – that those at the end of life were often left feeling isolated.

The opportunity to head the development an entirely new project for Cornwall Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre arose when funding was raised to take education, information and support into schools around the areas of sexual abuse, sexual attack and rape.  Raising awareness and the capacity to stay safer, identifying the frequent response to abuse which is to stay silent and encouraging children and young people to speak out was the fundamental core of the project.  All Secondary schools in Cornwall were offered the service.

The training of other counsellors at Advanced Diploma level has been an inspiring and exciting part of my career, as has the individual and group supervision of trainee and qualified and experienced counsellors. I have developed training packages for delivery at HE and FE level and for voluntary agencies and the Healthcare Trust and also in the training of individuals in a wide variety of ‘public contact’ professions.

Please feel free to contact me via email on info@hirapascoe.co.uk