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Counsellor & Couple Therapist.
“Someone who asks the questions…
… that no-one else is asking.”
Dean Richardson NCS(Accredited Registrant) (explanation of abbreviations) is a counsellor and couple therapist, practising privately as a Registered & Accredited member of the National Counselling Society (registration #NCS15-02454).
His practice locations include: Portsmouth (Hampshire) and online via Internet Video using Skype group video and Google Hangouts.
People come into counselling because they believe they can no longer manage their situations alone. Through counselling, Dean Richardson assists people look at matters that are restricting them, viewing things with a different frame, considering ways through situations.
Deciding if counselling with Dean is for you…
About You…
You will be someone who is able to look after yourself (e.g. providing your own support structure), taking responsibility for your feelings and behaviour.You’ll be seeking, through therapy, knowledge and learning about your situation, holding a belief that you are (at least in part) a product of your past experiences and decisions which may be changed by your future actions.Whilst you may be seeking relief through counselling, you’ll also understand that the counsellor does not provide the power to make such relief possible on your behalf; how you achieve such relief and changes will become your choice.Whilst short-term counselling can be effective, the speed at which you experience recovery is less up to the counsellor (alone) and more a product from the relationship built between counsellor and client.
About Dean…
Dean’s approach to counselling supports you in coming to terms with the risks and anxieties that life presents, in ways that make sense (or can begin to make sense) to you.Dean’s position is not to be in control of (eg “parent”) your life choices, nor to provide solutions (like a GP writes prescriptions). Instead, his approach supports your preparations of how you might go about managing – or changing – matters (maybe taking a little time).An analogy might be in assisting you for when the shit-hits-the-fan, rather than to support you going through life desperately arranging for all your fans to remain spotless.Dean’s approach is varied and accommodating, but will not break boundaries simply because you want him to.And that nothing begins without conversation…
When people can manage their circumstances again, counselling can begin to end.
Dean is a qualified, experienced, ethical, containing, helpful counsellor who assists individuals, couples and groups.
| Dean has been practising since 1999. He is an Accredited and Registered counsellor/psychotherapist offering private therapy in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and via Skype video conference.Dean is also a male counsellor whose online social presence is listed on the left hand side. |
What makes Dean Different from other Counsellors?
You’re not quite what I expected from a counsellor!
In counselling, Dean Richardson’s approach is to use sound, mature techniques that have been around for over 100 years.
He uses no magic language and no clever-sounding mind-techniques (this isn’t a Derren Brown or Paul McKenna kind of entertainment, after all).
To some, beginning counselling for the first time can seem as if you and Dean are just having a conversation and behaving socially.
But Dean’s approach to counselling means that the kind of conversation you’re having is effective in treating the reasons why you came into counselling. Through it, you and Dean together can work on addressing the burdens, giving you choices on transforming your life.
Counselling with Dean Richardson has two main aims…
- To give you space to tell your story to Dean.
- To work with Dean to begin to understand your story.
… because once you have understanding you can begin to make changes.
- Dean doesn’t sit in (unnecessary) silence. He’s not a counsellor who says “Hmm” for fifty minutes. Sometimes Dean has to think before speaking, but if silence is distressing to you then he will help.
- Dean uses what looks like social-conversation as his main method of practising counselling (as opposed to, say, using expressive art, drawings, scarfs, dolls etc). Dean pays attention to more than just what is being said verbally: using psychodynamic-based skills, understanding of human development, counter-transference interpretation and other basic therapeutic skills to maintain/increase empathy, Dean’s counselling approach is to help you and he evolve a therapeutic relationship in which transformation may become accessible.
- Dean doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff – whereas some counsellors might sometimes try and focus on the positive aspects of an experience, certain life-experiences (rape, trauma, muggings, attack) don’t really need someone shying away from you telling your fully story. Dean will listen to, and help you work through, the horrid… until the horrid isn’t so horrid any longer.
- Dean does not use art, drawings, playing roles or acting as a primary means for counselling. He doesn’t use drawing-in-sand, puppets nor scarfs.
- Dean doesn’t tell you what he thinks you aught to be doing to resolve your problems; he does not take on the role of a consultant. He doesn’t prescribe courses of action, such as “manualised” treatments that if you follow to the letter you will be “cured”. Instead, although it may seem unlikely to you or to you ad your partner, the resolutions to your distresses are within you and the way in which you and Dean will work together will help you discover approaches that are more suited to you than a generic prescription.
This kind of counsellor isn’t to everyone’s taste, and if it’s not working for you Dean and you can talk together about ending counselling (perhaps being referred to another therapist).
Dean’s Counselling Services.
Individual Counselling
Main individual counselling page… Dean Richardson works primarily to a psychodynamic-model of counselling, but it’s one that’s not scarily analytic nor cold (as some might imagine Sigmund Freud to have been); unresolved issues from our histories can have an ongoing detrimental effect on our present-day lives. With careful consideration on integrating appropriate skills from other therapy models (eg CBT/Cognitive Behavioural Approach, Gestalt, Person Centred), Dean can help you work through past issues so that your life can become released from past burden and can move on into the future. We communicate with people in many ways other than just verbal. This can leave us wondering why we’re stuck in unhappy certain social patterns (“no-one ever seems to like me”, “I always end up in the same kind of relationship”). Using what’s called the “counter-transference”, Dean will help you learn about yourself – with consideration and respect – in ways that can help you begin to understand why certain people may be relating to you in ways that you don’t understand. With new knowledge, you can choose (or not!) to make conscious changes that will improve unhappy patterns in your life.
Couple Counselling
Main couple counselling page… Dean Richardson works with couples using a primarily systemic plus psychodynamic model of counselling. Patterns of behaviour are set up in a relationship to avoid pain and anxiety, sometimes this is helpful and the relationship manages, sometimes this is not helpful and the relationship suffers. Working through matters by perturbing the unsatisfactory patterns of behaviour can release a relationship into working through the shared anxieties, and can help the couple bond again. Similarly, couples who wish to separate, but are struggling to do so, can find working with Dean helps them find mutually-agreeable ways to separate from the relationship; couple counselling is not just about keeping a couple together. Couple counselling is a robust process – couples in conflict may tend towards arguing and bring out the worst in each other – all this is useful in helping the couple work through the bad stuff … to help them find the good stuff … and to manage the bad stuff better when the bad stuff comes up again … thus making myself redundant as soon as the couple don’t need my services any longer.
Skype/Hangouts Video Counselling
Main video counselling page… Dean Richardson works remotely with clients using Skype Video. Skype is also suitable for couples (same country and different countries) where the partners are unable to meet with each other physically (remote / long-distance relationships) and whose relationship is in trouble. It is also suitable for couples who are local to each other (same town or same house!) who wish to work with Dean but who are unable to travel to Portsmouth on a regular basis. Using Skype Video as our communication medium, couples can meet regularly with a qualified and experienced couple counsellor to help them shift the conflicts that are getting in the way. Our initial goal is to identify the conflicts (sometimes not as obvious as they first appear) and then our primary goal becomes assisting the couple in their creativity to address, perturb and work through (or around) the matters that are getting in the way of their happy-enough relationship. It can also be helpful to address what is getting in the way of the couple’s usual way of resolving conflicts … and to address why that process isn’t working for these particular needing-to-get-a-counsellor-involved conflicts. It is my intention to help the couple be able to resolve their own issues again – intentionally making myself redundant. Skype Video works best with each partner using their own computer/Smartphone – but can also work if a couple can bare to sit close enough to fit into the view-finder of one camera.
Group Support Counselling
Main group support page… Support Group Counselling is based on a Foulksian group analytic model and uses helpful group-facilitative techniques. Unlike some group leaders that tell group members what to do, Dean supports the group into leading itself. The group includes Dean as the group conductor rather than the group being lead by him. In this way the group, together, finds its own was through difficult matters and individuals within the group can find support from the whole group matrix.
LGBT Counselling
Main LGBT Counselling page… As a speciality, Dean Richardson’s focus on sexuality and gender identification, working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* people (LGBT) in personal therapy, lesbian couples and gay couples, mixed-orientation relationships and LGBTQ groups. Dean offer LGBTQ a different experience in counselling for those who may have had uncomfortable counselling experienced from not-aware-enough counsellors. Whilst this is an area in which Dean specialises, he is also qualified to work with a forms of people for counselling, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, abilities within his qualifications to practice.
Why choose Dean Richardson?
Some points that describe Dean Richardson as your counsellor would include:-
- Caters for a wide-range of counselling problems – regardless of race, sexuality, religion or class.
- Maturity, experience, sensitivity, intuitiveness and empathy – all focussed on helping you transform from your life’s present conflicts.
- Fully qualified including a wide-range of sound, professional therapeutic approaches.
- Has appropriate professional civil-liability/indemnity insurance.
- Clinically Supervised to at-least the minimum NCS guidelines of 90 min/month.
- Undertakes at least a minimum of 30 hours Continual professional development (CPD) annually (often much more than this).
- Registered and Accredited member of The National Counselling Society.
- DBS/CRB checked & certified.
Private Counselling Practice (Portsmouth & Skype).
Unlike some therapy service centres which present therapy services for selection, but their intention is to refer you to third-party therapists, by choosing Dean Richardson you get to work with … Dean Richardson himself. All the information on this website is written by, or about, Dean Richardson. If this website discusses a particular counselling service offered by Dean Richardson, then it’s Dean Richardson who you will be working with if you decide to take up that counselling service. You can trust that when you decide to work with with Dean, it’s Dean who will be working with you.
Counselling Ethics.
Dean Richardson follows the NCS Ethical Framework.
Therapeutic Methods.
Dean’s methodologies of therapies include the following:-
- Psychodynamic, Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and Cognitive Behavioural (CBT) Approach for individuals,
- Integrated Systemic & Psychodynamic couple relationship counselling (integrating aspects from other models).
- Group analytic and facilitation-style principals for support groups.
Dean is fully qualified, supervised & experienced to practice as a counsellor the UK and assesses anyone for counselling regardless of presenting problem, age, gender, education, IQ, (dis-)abilities, relationship status, sexual orientation or gender identification – to mention a few. Dean specialises in working with LGBT individuals and couples including mixed-orientation couples.
Professional Counselling Qualifications.
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Qualifications & Primary Awards.
These are the foundations upon which I practice counselling/psychotherapy/group therapy.
- Diploma in Individual’s Counselling (Psychodynamic) (2003 – Chichester Counselling Services – BACP Accredited training course).
- Post Graduate Diploma in Systemic & Psychodynamic Couples Counselling (2009 – Chichester Counselling Services).
- National Foundation in Group Psychotherapy (2011 – IGA/GASE Brighton).
- Business Coaching & Mentoring Individuals (1998 – IBM North Harbour, Portsmouth).
- Group (Business) Meeting Facilitator (1997 – IBM North Harbour, Portsmouth).
Explanation of Dean Richardson’s Qualifications.
Registered Member NCS : Member of the National Counselling Society and registered counsellor. This membership & registration indicates that I subscribe to the NCS Ethical Framework. I am listed on the NCS’s Register of Counsellors/Psychotherapists (here).
(Accred) stands for “accreditation”; achieving accreditation is a professionally-recognised way to authenticate a therapist’s substantial level of training, practical experience and continued professional development. The accreditation is reviewed annually with 10% of therapists audited each year.
#NCS15-02454 – my registration number on the NCS Register of Counsellors & Psychotherapists.
Dip. Psych. Couns. : Diploma in psychodynamic counselling (Chichester) – observes the psychodynamic model for counselling. This was a three year, BACP-accredited, training diploma requiring a minimum of 100 hours supervised individuals practice plus academic submissions to achieve the qualification
PG Dip. Couples Couns. : Diploma in couples counselling (Chichester) following an integrated systemic model, psychodynamic model and appropriate techniques from other models such as CBT & Gestalt. This was a fifteen month (2 days a week) training diploma requiring a minimum of 100 hours supervised couples practice plus academic submissions to qualify.
National Foundation in Group Psychotherapy : Certificate in attending course run by Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) via Group Analysis South East (GASE). 37.5 hours theory, 45 hours experiential group.
In short, certificates generally require a minimum attendance to the training, whilst diplomas also require a minimum number of hours of supervised practice. [/tab] [tab]
Continuing Professional Development (highlights).
CPD:Continued Professional Development is a requirement of being a member of my professional body (the National Counselling Society). Each year I undertake 30 hours minimum of CPD. This allows me to keep in touch with the latest thinking around therapies, allows me to keep my practice current and modern, and allows me to expand my practice thinking by taking training that stretches my skills and professional abilities.
Major Reading List.
- Affirmation approach to treating gay male couples – Gil Tunnell.
- Couple Therapy with Gay Men – David E. Greenan, Gil Tunnell.
- The Power of Countertransference: Innovations in Analytic Technique – Karen J Maroda.
- The Deadly Equal Triangle – Janet Mattinson.
- Working Systemically with Families – Arlene Vetere & Rudi Dallos.
- Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy – Alan S Gurman.
- The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion – Neville Symington.
- The Transforming Power of Affect – Diana Fosha.
- The Beginning of Gestalt – Petrūska Clarkson http://www.gestalt.us/clarkson/
- The Fifty Minute Hour – Robert Lindner (1982).
- The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop – David P. McWhirter, Andrew M. Mattison.
- Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation: Emotional Engagement in the Analytic Process (Relational Perspectives Book Series) – Karen J Maroda.
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks.
- Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far – Charles Socaredes.
- Introduction to Group-Analytic Psychotherapy – S H Foulkes.
- Group Psychotherapy – S H Foulkes.
- The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy – Ivrin Yalom.
- Systemic Couple Therapy and Depression – Elsa Jones.
- Couples in Collusion – Jurg Willi
Attended workshops/training
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy “CBT With Heart” (2011-12 Hemmings Field Associates).
- “Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults” (2012 – Gerry Williams / Marple Cross Centre).
- “Stopping Self Harm” (2011 – Veronica (Ronnie) Freeman, chartered counselling psychologist).
- National Foundation in Group Psychotherapy, Institute of Group Analysis (2010-11 GASE – Brighton).
- “It’s not me, it’s my OCD”, (2010 – Tim Branson, Marple Cross Centre).
- Introduction to Domestic Abuse (2009 – WSCC Harm Reduction team)
- Online Counselling (2006-07 – OnlineCounsellors.co.uk – Kate Anthony BSc, MSc, MBACP).
- Assessing Clients for Psychodynamic Counselling (2006 – Eva Stolte – Chichester Counselling Services).
- Brief/focal psychodynamic psychotherapy (2004 (Penny Rawson) & 2009 (Joan Foster/Jan Irwin) – Chichester Counselling Services).
- Solution Focussed Brief Therapy “SFBT” (2005).
- Psychosexual identification of male impotence (2002).
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Professional Memberships.
- Accredited Member of the National Counselling Society.
- Counselling Directory [entry here].
- Online Therapy & Coach Institutes [information]
- Counselling & Psychotherapy Union (of Great Britain) [information]
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Professional Counselling Specialities.
As a professional therapist I have particular areas of interest in working with couple relationships; not just intimate/marriage relationships, but also couple relationships made of people who are not necessarily in an intimate relationship (eg business partners, family members, friends, flat-mates). This does not detract from my professional standards in offering general practice individual & couples counselling and support groups.