Chris Allwright

Chris Allwright Registered Member of the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) 528622.
Woodlands: 01332 299133
Mobile: 07968 234 999
Email: chris.allwright@gmail.com

INTEGRATIVE COUNSELLING

I have over twenty five years experience of Mental Health services, Social Care and Education, working with individuals and groups ranging in age from secondary school right through to end of life care. Throughout this time have I worked with individuals in many different challenging and complex circumstances. I have held 1:1 advice and support roles as well as management positions – including managing disability, wellbeing and counselling services – and I have also been a Safeguarding Officer.

I first trained as a counsellor in the late 1990’s. Following my training with Nottingham University I had a small private practice and also taught counselling skills classes at an Adult Education Centre. I carried this on for five years and then a promotion in my main employment meant that I could no longer keep evenings free for counselling work so I took a break from practice.

Over the following years I developed my career in Education Management and continued to develop my knowledge and skills with qualifications in Stress Management and Business Coaching. During this period I also experienced a wide range of life experiences; fathering two children (now in their teens), losing both parents to terminal illness, being made redundant and having a serious, potentially career limiting accident. I believe that all of this has enhanced my capacity to connect with and understand how people encounter challenges through their lives and to work with them to move through these.

It was whilst recovering from my accident during 2015/16 that I started to explore the idea of returning to private counselling practice. Now fully recovered I have been back in private practice since December 2017 and I am thoroughly enjoying being back in a career which I feel so suited for.

Having worked with individuals in many different traumatic and challenging situations I am confident to deal with any issue. When meeting new clients for the first time I always offer a free initial consultation to enable the client to assess whether I am the right counsellor for them before they make any commitments. Appointments can be face to face, telephone or skype, either during the day or weekday evenings.