Martin Firstbrook
BA (Hons), PgDP, MBACP (Accred)
 

Martin Firstbrook BA(Hons), PgDP, MBACP

 

Who I am

First and foremost, I am a fellow human with a passion for understanding the psyche and guiding others on their own path of understanding.  I am also an experienced counsellor, psychotherapist and coach.  I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (registration number 375057).  I previously worked in the City for 18 years.

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I play many roles in my life - father, son, husband, brother, psychotherapist, coach, mentor, consultant, student, expert, novice, friend, lover, pleaser, assertor.  I play all of these roles and others to the best of my ability, but I know that I am more than any of these roles.  This is part of what we will explore together.  What roles have you learnt to play to fit in to the world?  What roles are you overplaying or underplaying?  What roles are you overidentified with?  What roles do you want to play instead?  What gets in the way?

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Approach

The underpinning hypothesis of my way of working is the belief that there is a natural lifelong development and evolution of our personality.  Our natural development sometimes comes into conflict with old patterns and this unconscious conflict is often experienced through symptoms such as anxiety, depression, confusion, relationship difficulties etc.  Therefore, part of our work together will be exploring your past and how that is affecting you in the present.  However,  I am equally interested in who you are becoming and what is blocking that from emerging. 

 

There will be times when it is appropriate for me to listen, guide and empathise and times where it is appropriate to question, challenge and educate.  Whatever the approach, I will be working for your benefit, helping you to become more aware of your inner landscape and how to move forward.

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My training has been integrative, which means that I have a number of different clinically proven approaches to draw on for our work together.  I carefully apply different elements of various therapeutic and coaching approaches to suit the person I am working with and their challenges.

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In addition to exploring my client's emotional and psychological underpinnings, I also support clients to explore the practical steps that need to be taken in order to actualise change.

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Next Steps

The first step is to contact me by email or phone and we will arrange a time for an initial consultation.  During the initial consultation, we will discuss your situation and get to know each other a little before deciding on whether we will work together for a length of time and on what basis.

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Education and Accreditations

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• Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

• Postgraduate Diploma in Psychosynthesis Counselling, accredited by the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

• Member of the British Psychological Society and BPS Special Group in Coaching

• British Psychological Society, Qualified Specialist in Test Use

• Accredited to use a range of psychometric tools including: Hogan Assessments HDS, HPI, MVPI; Talent Q Dimensions; Neo PI-R; MBTI; BeTalent Strengths, Values and Decision Making Style

• Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme, accredited by the World Association of Business Coaches

• Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development