About Me
What drives me to work as a counsellor is a long-held fascination with the process of change. To be part of that process with other people, to connect and learn together, is an incredible experience and one I treasure.
I trained as an integrative counsellor. The great value I have found in this way of training is learning to blend and embody different counselling models and theories along with relevant education, work and life experiences. This process allows for these experiences to flow through the therapeutic relationship in a manner that is tailored to that relationship and the character and needs of the person I am with.
In this way therapy can be a two-way conversation, we are in it together - learning, healing, growing.
Qualifications & Training
Adv. Dip. Integrative Counselling
Iron Mill College, Exeter
The course content took in all the main models of therapy and developed the fundamental relational skills of connecting and attuning with another. The theoretical models that I took the most from were:
- Psychoanalytic School: Winnicott's Object Relations; Bowlby’s attachment theory
- Humanistic School: Gestalt, Family Systems and Roger’s person centred
- Neuroscience: In particular the work of Danial Stern and Stephen Porges and Deb Dana’s therapeutic translation of his Polyvagal theory.
MSc International Development
Bristol University
This incredibly rich experience gave me the opportunity to learn with other students from every continent of the world, providing a broad set of perspectives and experiences and enormous learning, particularly the understanding that change for communities is only successful and long lasting when development organisations work alongside them offering support and guidance as opposed to telling communities what they need and how to do it.
BA (Fed.) Philosophy
Birkbeck College, University of London
This course developed in me the skill to be able to see and think from different theoretical perspectives; to understand that no one person or idea holds the whole truth; and the ability to break up problems into more manageable parts.
The course content took in all the main models of therapy and developed the fundamental relational skills of connecting and attuning with another. The theoretical models that I took the most from were:
- Psychoanalytic School: Winnicott's Object Relations; Bowlby’s attachment theory
- Humanistic School: Gestalt, Family Systems and Roger’s person centred
- Neuroscience: In particular the work of Danial Stern and Stephen Porges and Deb Dana’s therapeutic translation of his Polyvagal theory.
This incredibly rich experience gave me the opportunity to learn with other students from every continent of the world, providing a broad set of perspectives and experiences and enormous learning, particularly the understanding that change for communities is only successful and long lasting when development organisations work alongside them offering support and guidance as opposed to telling communities what they need and how to do it.
This course developed in me the skill to be able to see and think from different theoretical perspectives; to understand that no one person or idea holds the whole truth; and the ability to break up problems into more manageable parts.
Work History
I co-found and ran a community development charity for 15 years. The charity was based in inner city Bristol, and worked with:
- Young people to develop their skills and experiences through activities including film and animation projects focused on issues ranging from knife crime and drugs through to period poverty and cyber bullying.
- Adults through a peer led learning project focused on providing a route out of a life dominated by trauma, poor mental health, addiction and the compounding effects of social and economic exclusion.
Life Experience
I have studied Wing Chun, a Chinese martial art for nearly 20 years. An invaluable skill it gives me is the ability to shift my attention to my senses and allow my thoughts to fall back. This improves my ability to connect and attune to another person in a fuller, moment by moment way, enabling me to be more of a curious, compassionate guiding force when counselling.
©N.J.Bentley Counselling
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