The fundamental Core Values of First Base Counselling are as follows:
• Professional: I offer a safe, empathic, professional and ethical service for the alleviation of personal distress and suffering and promotion of your personal growth and well-being.
• Respectful: I am consistently respectful of your human rights, dignity and accepting of the diversity of your culture and life experiences without prejudice.
• Responsive: I work with you holistically and uphold your autonomy to be self directing inside and outside of the therapy room.
• Fairness: I treat you fairly with the utmost integrity for the therapeutic relationship, your personal safety, and access to the services offered.
• Confidential: I professionally manage and respect your right to privacy and confidentiality and consider your own autonomy and legal frameworks for managing disclosure.
• Commitment: I am committed to partaking in activities for my own continuous professional and personal development, developing good practice and moral qualities as a therapeutic practitioner including, empathy, sincerity, integrity, resilience, respect, humility, competence, fairness, wisdom and courage.
Maintaining your best interests:
I keep informed of current thinking, research and agendas for change in the field of mental health and well-being and how these may offer new opportunities for access to therapeutic support.
I attend on-going training for my own continuous professional development to keep me in top form; maximising my potential so that I can effectively invest in your well-being and growth.
I attend regular clinical supervision in accordance with the guidelines set within the BACP Ethical Framework. Supervision is a reflective practice to ensure that I am offering you an effective, focused, safe and ethical service.
I facilitate group supervision and peer support sessions for my own and other therapists’ personal development, we share ideas and models of good practice; therefore consistently improving the service I offer you.
I hold the relevant Professional Indemnity Insurance as a counselling practitioner and yoga teacher which includes malpractice, professional, public and products liability, and hold a current Enhanced DBS Certificate for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults.