ABOUT CHRIS

MY BACKGROUND

I am an approachable and friendly person who has for many years explored how I can support people to the best of my ability. I believe in the power of relationship and nurturing individual’s inner motivation. I am motivated by and passionate about the work that I do directly with people and it having an emerging positive influence on their families, friends, colleagues, organisations and communities.

I offer a gently robust approach that aims to address the issue or issues that each person, or team brings, and develop a therapeutic relationship based on compassion, integrity, and empathy.

I have a Masters Degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Degree in Outdoor Studies, specialist training in coaching and NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) and achieved a Masters level qualification in Spiritual Development and Facilitation. I am a Registered Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and accredited by the Institute of Outdoor Learning for my outdoor work with individuals and groups. 

I am deeply committed to working with people to improve their mental, emotional and spiritual health. I am adaptable to the needs of individuals, groups and organisations I work with offering compassion, integrity, and empathy, and a down to earth way of working within the Person Centred Approach.

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I became a counsellor and psychotherapist in 2012, following on naturally from being at the cutting edge of delivering, managing and leading personal and professional development training, teaching, coaching and outdoor adventure, within and for, leading national and international consultancy organisations for over 15 years.

I have had the privilege of working with over 200 organisations, countless groups and teams, company directors and managers, blue and white collar workers, children and young people - all of which, have taught me so much of the human condition and how people change, grow, cope and develop, and what it takes to keep going and doing your best no matter what life or work bring, and most importantly; the skills, attitudes and conditions necessary to do these things and how to offer these to the absolute best of my ability in my private practice (Kendal Therapy) today.

In the first four years of being a counsellor I worked part time as a Counselling Coordinator' developing the 25 plus counselling team and services in my Local Mind (South Lakeland Mind), which has given me valuable experience in supporting people with a huge variety of challenges and issues that I would rarely meet in private practice, but are desperate for support, with usually nowhere else to go. Developing the South Lakeland Mind counselling service up to the MQM (Mind Quality Standard) was hugely rewarding and had the knock on effect of helping me support my private practice clients even better. I also founded the first outdoor counselling service in the UK, which included training up counsellors to be able to work outside with their clients safely and effectively.

I have had a very small consultancy and training role in South Lakeland Mind supporting the training and outdoor therapy services. I have also Lectured at the University of Cumbria on Outdoor Therapy related modules on their graduate and post graduate programmes. I am sometimes asked to consult on Outdoor Therapy projects too which really is a joy. My focus though, is counselling and my Kendal Therapy clients are my priority.

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Alongside my private counselling practice, I have been the Pandemic Wellbeing Response Lead for Sodexo Healthcare UK, responsible for in house pandemic wellbeing and mental health services across a range of UK hospital sites, supporting key workers that have been on the front line fighting against Covid-19 and working throughout the outbreak. I Led the delivery team, and was based in Manchester Central Hospital (The Largest Hospital in Europe) and  The project has since won the 'Spirit of Sodexo UK and Ireland Award 2021 for Health and Safety Initiative'.  After a year, the services are thriving and broader in scope. I went on become the National Counselling Lead focusing on supporting other Sodexo sites coming out of the pandemic and supporting staff with any issue related to mental and emotional distress. The project went on to win the external IWFM Impact Award for Wellbeing 2021. I returned back to full time to Kendal Therapy in January 2023.