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Profile
Name : Amanda Marston
Occupation : Counsellor
History
I began my journey towards working as a counsellor in 1993, whilst living in the UK. I was working for an agricultural mortgage company as a mortgage advisor and hated my job! I decided to try something completely different and began working for The National Society for Epilepsy, both as a support group facilitator and an information and support worker at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
I decided I had found my niche in life – working with people NOT computers and figures, but I was also very aware that I had no official training or qualifications in this area. Therefore, at the age of 26, I started a journey which would change my life. The next four years were spent in therapy, at university, in supervision, with my nose in books and working as a volunteer in a women’s refuge where I set up and ran a counselling practice.
Once qualified, I set up a private counselling practice and received funding from the National Lottery to set up and run an Outreach Service for women experiencing domestic violence. The main aim of the service was to ensure that women and children were aware of their legal rights and to enable them to remain in their own homes rather than have to leave and uproot their whole lives. I then got married and moved to a new area where a similar service was in the process of being established and I therefore took my knowledge and experience to the Domestic Violence Intervention Partnership.
My duties included developing the service, putting together and overseeing a training package for other agencies, facilitating the training of the other staff members, supervising other staff members and, of course, working with clients towards rebuilding their sometimes shattered sense of self and self worth and ensuring that they, and their children, were safe. During this time, I continued to work within my private counselling practice. |
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