About Cathy
Qualifications & Professional Information
Cathy Dewhurst has an Advanced Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling and is a fully accredited member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, BACP (Registered Member number 00605692).
She has worked in the field of counselling for the past 16 years both in private practice and with a number of different charities including: Women + Health, Camden, Place2Be, Harlow Counselling Centre and Hope in Tottenham Counselling Project.
In addition to private practice she is currently working with children in a Special Needs School in North London and the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education.
Through continuing professional development she maintains an interest in the latest developments and research.
The BACP offers protection to both clients and therapists and you can visit their website to see the code of ethics that registered counsellors work to. www.bacp.co.uk
Way of Working
In her initial studies, Cathy focussed on the psychodynamic approach to counselling. Since then she has moved to a more integrative style, drawing from the different methods and theories of counselling and psychotherapy to meet the individual needs of her clients.
Generally, Cathy is not the sort of counsellor who tilts her head on one side and says “and how does that make you feel?”. She won’t let you get away with glossing over the difficult or painful bits but her challenges are gentle and well-timed.
Cathy does her best work with medium and long term counselling. She recognises that it can be difficult to say goodbye to a good and helpful relationship. Regular reviews are scheduled within the work so that there is a continuing assessment of what has been achieved so far and what still needs to be looked at. With this in mind, the counselling work will not continue longer than it is needed.
A successful piece of work includes helping the client to gain the reflection skills that can be useful when facing new challenges in life. That way, old and unhelpful patterns are less likely to be repeated.