Bernie Wright

More information about my professional qualifications & approach. Bernie Photo April 2021.jpg BACP-Logo-18963.png ncfed-logo-1.png ‘‘Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace” Albert Schweitzer I began my therapeutic journey when I first qualified as a Counsellor in 2005. When I first started out after qualifying I very quickly recognised a common denominator in a significant proportion of my clients. So often they were presenting with low self-esteem, self-loathing, a limited ability to be kind to themselves, poor body image and problems with assertiveness tending to use anger as a way of communicating or were easily intimidated/bent against their will. Furthermore, I was working with a lot of clients who were clinically obese or painfully thin and I learnt very quickly that even the ones presenting with normal body weight were often abusing themselves by self-harming, substance abuse and poor diet. This is frequently coupled with difficult, challenging relationships with themselves and others, and they were commonly using food/alcohol/nicotine or other mood-altering substances to self-medicate. These early observations lead me on my first steps along the special interest path of eating disorders. In 2007 I trained as a Master Practitioner in Eating Disorders and Obesity at The National Centre for Eating Disorders (NCFED) and after qualifying I went on to become a Registered Supervisor. Over the following years through my specialist work, I built a solid reputation of being a caring and approachable therapist. I have an innate ability to very quickly put clients at ease at the same time as getting directly get to the heart of the presenting issues and work collaboratively to get the job done, whilst supporting the individual to move into psychological health and to live the life they deserve to live. After many years of established private practice work I began to turn my attention to an area I had often experienced as lacking when working with clients. Very frequently it became apparent that clients were experiencing a lack of awareness when it came to eating disorders from GPs, general counsellors and other relevant first points of contact. In response to this I began developing training sessions for professionals to begin to bridge the knowledge gap. After several years of running successful training alongside my practice, I have taken the decision to focus largely on the training side of my work. I do continue to supervise the work of practitioners seeking support in the field of eating disorders and people in larger bodies, as well as offering breakthrough sessions for new clients and undertaking family support work.