Adriana Cracknell MBACP, NCPS (Acc.) COSRT Advanced Couples Therapist
Founder & Director of Bedfordshire Counselling (established in 1997)
I am a qualified and highly experienced Counsellor/Clinical Supervisor/Group Facilitator with experience in both private and voluntary sectors for over 29 years. I specialise in sexual assault/abuse, PTSD, depression/anxiety and relationship issues-couples, families or individuals. I can help you develop an understanding of yourself and others, and provide you with the support to work on the issues you face, facilitating positive change. It is a way of reducing any confusion and enabling choice; it is not about forcing you to take a particular course of action
Starting therapy can be an important first step. The way I work is based on the notion that the past can affect your experiences and feelings in the present, along with the idea that important relationships, perhaps from early childhood, may create a pattern for how you respond to people later on in life.
As a therapist, I aim to be as neutral as possible. We will often assess emotions, thoughts, early-life experiences, and beliefs to gain more understanding into your present-day problems. We will also highlight patterns which may be recurring, this could help you to see the ways in which you and/or your partner may be avoiding difficult situations or to see defence mechanisms you may have developed as a way of coping. In doing so, you will be able to take steps towards changing and challenging those patterns, thoughts, and behaviours either as an individual or as a couple.
I am a COSRT Advanced Couples Therapist and enjoy working with the various dynamics that couples bring. I work with all issues that affect the balance of a relationship.
My other passion is working as a Group Facilitator, having recently completed an NHS Counselling Support Group for people with mental health issues. To watch a group grow, trust and support each other, building friendships and motivating each other, is a privilege.
As a Clinical Supervisor I work with and support trainee Counsellors as well as established Counsellors, exploring any challenges they may face in their work and looking at ways that they can grow and improve themselves and their practice.
Over the years I have helped people to overcome a wide range of difficult thoughts, feelings and behaviours and have witnessed positive changes, with clients making life choices that work for them. Please contact me for a free 30 min assessment on:
Mobile: 07881717155
Email: askbedfordshirecounselling@outlook.com
Website: www.bedfordshirecounselling.co.uk
Qualifications:
Diploma in Counselling – Central School of Counselling Therapy
Advanced Certificate in Relationship/Couple Therapy (COSRT)
Certificate in Counselling Children & Young People
NCIP Certificate in Working With Trauma & The Living Body
Level 6 Certificate in Therapeutic Counselling Supervision
RSA Certificate in Counselling Skills – Barnfield College
OXSEM Group Trainer for Divorced & Separated Workshops
NHS Group Facilitator
NHS Stop Smoking Advisor
Student Services Counsellor in an Educational Setting with young people
Counsellor in HMP Service setting
Stress & Anxiety Management Group Facilitator with Social Services
Fluent Italian speaker with knowledge of trans-cultural issues and Trainer for Multi-cultural Workshops
A founder member of the local Bedfordshire Area Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and Central Bedford Counselling Service
Stuart Sage Psychotherapist/Group Analyst MBACP, MGASi
Before training as a Psychotherapist and Group Analyst I trained and worked as a Psychiatric Nurse. I have worked in the NHS on an acute mental health ward providing therapeutic interventions to clients with various mental health issues including anxiety, depression, Psychotic illness and other Psychiatric problems as well as working in the community setting. Over the years, I have worked for several charities as a manager and providing counselling, group therapy for a residential Alcohol rehabilitation project, at a counselling service and providing support within the homeless sector. I spent several years as a manager in the NHS managing the Specialist Substance Misuse Service across Bedfordshire. Since leaving the NHS I have been working in Private practice as an individual Psychotherapist and Group Analyst. I have provided Clinical Supervision to trainee counsellors and qualified therapists as well as being involved in running counselling training courses, lectures and workshops on therapeutic skills and theory. I continue to see individual clients as well as group therapy and provide clinical supervision.
I completed my training as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist (WPF Counselling and Psychotherapy) in 2003. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy concentrates on how our past relationships affect our present relationships and our mental health. I have worked with people with a range of issues, but a lot of my focus has been on issues around emotional, physical and sexual abuse. It can take time for people to open up about such painful issues, so I offer long-term open-ended psychotherapy. This means we can work as long as the client needs and wants, this can be for many months or even years. I also work with clients that have various problems with addictions. In my experience problems with addictions are often a symptom of past traumas and a way of coping with these issues and other difficulties such as loneliness, lack of confidence or relationship problems.
My training as a Group Analyst (which I completed in 2015) was with Oxford Brooks university in association with the Turvey institute of Group-Analytic Psychotherapy. Group therapy is a powerful therapy as clients realise they are not alone with their difficulties and can get great support from sharing with others. Even sharing very personal issues can be very healing when said out loud, to a group you have grown to trust who do not judge you but accept you with all complexities and insecurities. We were born into a group and sometimes these family groups can be very difficult so being in a therapy group can give us a positive different experience.
I always offer a 90-minute assessment session to clients. This is time for me to get to know what some of the issues are, but it also gives the client a sense of how I work. If I do not feel that the way I work is suitable for you, I will work with you to find someone who will be best to help your needs.
askbedfordshirecounselling@outlook.com
07944074472
Jonathan Andrews Bsc (Hons) Psych (Open), MBACP
I completed my degree in psychology in 2017, and decided that I wanted to use my learning and drive in a practical and contributory way. This is working with people, and the events and influences in their lives that are struggles to get through, both internal and external.
I qualified with my Diploma in 2020, in Psychodynamic Counselling. This is foundational to how I work, big questions and factors about who you are, what’s important to you, how are these ideas created and maintained.
My further qualification in 2023 was in Integrative therapeutic Counselling-different ways of listening, working, and finding a way to a sense of ease, or satisfaction, or of agency-the ability to act.
I’ve found that there has to be a blend of technique, learning and approachability in counselling. I realise I’m working with people, not issues or abstract problems. You, the situation, and your feelings, whatever they may be. I have come to believe that therapy is effective when the conversation is natural, and I therefore work quite relationally.Which means …if the conversation feels natural, and easy, though not without challenge, you are addressing issues and exploring safely, and comfortably. This is what we both would want, for successful therapy.
In study, supervision and own life experience, I have learned, beyond anything else to recognise, and play by my strengths. This is at the heart of the work I do. Exploration and challenge to isolate and use the gifts and abilities you have as an individual to navigate the time and place and events that you are in. I help people to recognise themselves, and these inherent known and sometimes unknown parts of themselves.
I’ve worked well with people suffering from stress, anxiety, depression. I’ve worked with people who feel “lost but don’t know why” and people who want to make sense of now, and who want to explre how the past is still pulling strings in the present. labels and diagnosis absolutely have their place, but you are a person, not an assortment of issues.
I’m curious about you because you are much more capable and stronger than you think. You can do things you think you can’t, and you are not a finished product. You may be unsure, or unbalanced, but when you are able to recognise and honour yourself honestly, you will realise this too.
