About Us
About Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy
Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy is a multi-disciplinary Non-Profit Organisation. The Practice is based in the North Essex, Tendring area.
At Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy we focus on therapies and are inclusive of all ages, relationship needs and we endeavour to support individual’s, couples and families through to those in latter stages of life.
We aim to develop communication and an enlightened understanding of self to promote personal growth. This is promoted through a holistic, ‘child and family centred’ process that incorporates, practical, sociological and psychological perspectives.
Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy work with direct referrals from Individuals, couples and families and we also work with partnering organisations who refer to us, such as the Local Authorities, Schools and Health Professionals.
All Practitioners are trained to a high standard, are registered with the relevant Professional Bodies and fully insured in practice.
Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy has a range of quality practices that include the following –Counselling, Couples Counselling, Relationship Counselling (to include a systemic approach), Children’s Counselling Special Needs Counselling, Professional Supervision, Safeguarding Consultations for Professionals, Looked After Children Attachment-Focused Therapy, Trauma Counselling, DDP and Theraplay techniques, Art Psychotherapies, Group School-Based Therapy. As well as school interventions in Education and Health Care Planning (EHCP). There are also groups that run focusing on mindfulness and well-being.
At Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy we are happy to explore any area of mental health needs with you and work together with other professionals where required. For those who have a faith, we are able and willing to incorporate these areas of your life, within your sessions.
Sarah / Managing Director
Sarah has a wide range of experience within the context of local, national and international children and family work, having lived and worked in the UK and South Africa.
Her work in the sphere of the Social work, Therapeutic Interventions, Teaching, Training and Management has underpinned Bespoke Therapy & Advocacy’s drive to support children and families, enabling positive achievement and the best outcomes in each individual family situation. Sarah’s experience and knowledge has enabled her to identify the promotion of support required to identify best outcomes and clear assessment and planning for families within a therapeutic approach.
Sarah is a Programme Lead and University Lecturer in her health, psychology and social care and early years childhood and development field.
Sarah has over 25 years of experience and holds degrees in Social Work, Education (teaching), and in Clinical and Community Psychology. Other professional development and training continues to incorporate Therapeutic-Play-Based assessment, SEND and Mental Health, Self-Regulation and Mindfulness, Sexual Health and HIV Support, including health and social care practices, focusing on the need for:
- Attachment-based nurturing support for children and families,
- Education planning,
- Behaviour Management and identification of support and intervention planning,
- Assessment of the need for sensory regulation (and nurturing touch programmes),
- Additional needs education perspectives and care planning,
- Awareness of and training in child development,
- Holistic, person-centred planning and parental support requirements,
- Trauma support that is working towards recovery through the application of therapeutic approaches,
- CPD Training and Development,
- Independent Social Work support and assessment – to include fostering, permanence, mental health,
- Working systemically with Professionals and supporting families through a Solution-Focused approach, to include Supervision of Professionals in Social Work, Teaching and Therapeutic Professional roles.
Frances Davies
An experienced adult and child Counselling Psychotherapist.
I have over 25 years of experience working with young people and their families across health, educational and counselling settings. I started my career in South Devon working as both a Community Psychiatric Nurse with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and in a Young People Inpatient setting. On leaving the NHS I completed a degree in Counselling which has further strengthened the support and potential for change I can offer to Children and Young People, Families and Individual Adults Clients. I am also a qualified Teacher and specialise in the teaching of Social Sciences at Degree level.
I strongly believe in working with families to explore both the individuals (within the family) and the family as a whole, to find ways in which resolutions or the management of difficulties can be understood in an open and non-judgemental manner. Through the fostering of open communication, I believe we can build our resilience to cope with the difficulties we have to manage in life. A family is like a machine and all parts need to be nurtured and cared for if the machine is to function at its optimum. Through counselling I aim to offer an environment where you can find your own solutions and draw on the internal resources you already have to support confidence moving forward.
- Integrative Counselling for Young People, Families including fostering and Looked After Children
- Individual Adult Counselling
- Couples Counselling
- Play based therapeutic sessions for children.
- Attachment-based nurturing support for children and families.
- Awareness of and training in child development
- Working together, with a range of professionals and supporting families through a solution-focused approach.
Lindsay Horsley
Lindsay is a BACP Accredited Psychotherapist/Counsellor and University Lecturer. Lindsay’s counselling practice, supervision and teaching is based on a humanistic/person-centred approach; her wide experience supports the view that, given the right conditions, an individual has the capacity for self-help and healing. Lindsay is qualified through Barnardo’s in Attachment Focus Therapy, which underpins work supporting families and individuals where adoption is the focus of the work. Lindsay’s direct practice can also include life story work with young people.
Lindsay’s current portfolio also includes the provision of counselling and psychological support to looked after children in residential care; which extends to private counselling with young people (11+).
Lindsay holds a firm commitment to the relationship between theory and practice, which is supported by Academic Research required for a Lecturing post of a BA Counselling programme. In addition to a Lecturing role, Lindsay facilitates supervision of counsellors in training and the ongoing Supervision requirements post qualified for best practice.
- Registered and Accredited member of British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- BA(Hons) Counselling Studies
- Dip HE in Person-Centred Counselling
- Certificate in CBT
- Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education
- HEA Fellow of Education (level 2)
- Certificate in Attachment Focused therapy Barnardo’s LINK (working with adopters and adoptees)
- Certificate in Supervision
Amelia Dobie
Amelia is a qualified BACP registered Counsellor working with both children and adults. She has worked extensively with Looked After Children and children with Special Guardianship. She works not only to support and advocate for the child but finds that the most impactful way to promote positive change is to work systemically with carers, social workers, and schools. She understands that many of the children within the care system are affected by developmental trauma and working with the team around them is a successful way of creating a sense of security, safety, and consistency for the child.
Amelia is trained in Adoption Support Counselling and can provide therapeutic support for anyone affected by adoption and their families.
She has experience in working with individuals with challenges relating to SEND issues and understand the impact this can place on families. She can also offer support for parents and carers.
She has previously worked as a bereavement counsellor offering both face to face and telephone counselling to those struggling with their grief.
These are adverse times and Amelia appreciates the range of difficulties that many of us find ourselves facing, affecting our self-esteem and confidence. She believes that by the client and therapist working together they can explore ways to relieve distress, loss, trauma, and insecurities and move towards resilience and self-fulfilment.
- BACP registered Counsellor
- Adoptions Support Counselling
- Specialist working knowledge in LAC and children under SGOs
- General Counselling
- Bereavement Counselling
- SEND support to individuals and families
- Zoom and telephone support
Sally Johns Green
As a BACP registered counsellor, I am qualified in Humanistic Person Centred counselling and Person Centred Art Therapy.
I have over twenty five years of experience in working therapeutically with adults, children, couples and families.
Before qualifying as a counsellor, my background was in teaching, at primary and secondary level, as well as teaching art to adults and running creative workshops for children.
I have held counselling posts with Colchester’s Youth Offending Team and the Youth Enquiry Service, providing therapy to young people having issues such as addiction, violent behaviour and abuse.
Children often cannot find words to describe their feelings and difficulties; using art and creative work, as well as play therapy, can help them to find expression for their feelings. This can be true for adults too and those with a learning difficulty.
I believe that being enabled to feel listened to, heard, valued and understood, without judgement or criticism is in itself healing and can lead to greater self-confidence, self-awareness and the ability to create change and move forward in the exploration and resolution of difficulties.
- Art and creative work
- Transgender issues
- Abuse
- Domestic violence
- Bereavement and loss
- Relationship difficulties
- Depression and anxiety
- General counselling
Jess Tedford
I am a HCPC registered Dramatherapist and Creative Arts Practitioner, with 10 years experience of using the arts as a tool for promoting emotional, social and psychological changes. I have worked within community, voluntary, health, educational, and corporate settings as a counsellor.
It can often be difficult and overwhelming to find the words to accurately describe what we are experiencing; the arts can act as a container for safely expressing and exploring our thoughts and feelings. As a therapist, I use a range of creative techniques with the aim of helping clients explore new perspectives and gain insight. Examples include, but are not limited to, the use of stories, art making, image cards and mindfulness. No skill or experience is required to engage in this way; I have additional training in talking and solution focused methods and I tailor my approach to suit the need of each client, incorporating creative methods where appropriate.
Sessions are available on a group and individual basis. A 1:1 setting allows for a flexible approach that focuses on personal complex and sensitive needs. A group setting provides the opportunity to share experiences, connect with others and build trust, often improving confidence and social skills. Sessions can also be tailored to suit family needs and where appropriate, therapeutic interventions can often involve participation of family members in order to help effect change in the client’s wider settings.
Examples of areas covered and interventions offered:
- Individual counselling therapy for all ages
- Group therapy sessions such as in schools, focusing on specific themes e.g. year transitions
- Creative team building sessions for workplaces
- Family interventions
- In person and online/telephone sessions
- SEND, anxiety, loss & grief, change/transition, relationship difficulties, stress, low confidence & self esteem
Nurturing Parenting is the foundation for children to thrive, as they grow, develop and reach milestones, ‘The Nurturing Parent’ consultations provide an opportunity to be more holistic in parenting and for parents to identify ways to meet their child’s developmental, attachment and sensory needs