Elaine Sketchley

Elaine has worked as a Student Counsellor at Cardiff University since November 2003. Prior to this she worked as an NHS Substance Misuse Counsellor and as a Bereavement Counsellor. She also held a counselling position within a Further Education College. As part of her role there, she taught on The Introduction to Counselling Course. For many years she worked within the Mental Health Sector and holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Applied Psychology from The University of Sussex. She originally trained with WPF (Westminster Pastoral Foundation), undertaking a 2 year Advanced Certificate in Psychodynamic Counselling. Throughout this training period, she worked in a Psychodynamic Low-Cost Counselling Practice.

Upon moving to Wales in 1997, she embarked upon a further 2 year Diploma in Professional Studies Counselling at the University of the West of England. This training incorporated an Integrative Humanistic/Psychodynamic Approach. Elaine's interests include: the psychology of attachment, early trauma and the role of loss and how these may continue to impact upon the present. She is interested in working with creativity and how it can be harnessed as a constructive method of self-expression, self-understanding and growth. A particular area of interest, in this respect, has been the application of Therapeutic Writing with individual clients and in a group-work context. Additionally, she has experience of facilitating relaxation/stress management and creative visualisation groups.

More recently, she has renewed a long standing interest in meditation and is particularly interested in the role Mindfulness has to play in the management of stress. Having recently undertaken a training in Mindfulness for Stress Management, she integrates Mindfulness techniques into her individual and group work. She feels that her own Mindfulness practice enhances and enriches her counselling practice, by strengthening her ability to focus and be present in the here and now moment with the client. Elaine believes that the possibility of positive change is within everyone’s grasp, given that the necessary conditions are ‘good enough’. To this end, she feels that she offers her clients a safe/holding space in which to explore their unique concerns and one in which valuing, acceptance and compassion are paramount.