About Us

Claire Guy
MA; TEP (AANZPA); MNZAC; Regd Psychotherapist

Key strands in my working life are community development, staff training and organisational development and counselling/psychotherapy. I am a certificated Trainer, Educator and Practitioner (TEP) and Psychodramatist, I am a staff member of the Wellington Psychodrama Training Institute and for 15 years have facilitated a range of psychodrama experiential and training programmes. I have 15 years experience as senior tutor on a Diploma in Applied Counselling and Degree in Applied Social Science (Counselling) with a teaching emphasis on therapeutic group work, psychodrama and psychodynamic counselling and working with families and couples.

My current private practice comprises: counselling and psychotherapy with individuals, couples and families; clinical and professional supervision, and coaching and mentoring including conflict resolution and mediation. I design and facilitate a range of personal and professional development workshops.

I work with the everyday problems of human existence which can be expressed as “How to feel good about myself” and “How to get on with others”. Presenting problems in my clinical work might be depression and anxiety; self criticism and loss of self esteem; trauma; addictive habits; worrying about the future; work stress and related issues; life transitions; family and parenting issues; separation and infidelity; sexuality; loss and grief; living with life threatening disease; ageing.

Jim Batson
BA; CTA (ITAA); MNZAC; Counsellor

There are two strands in my working life: adult education and training, and counselling. These strands merged when I became a trainer on a tertiary training programme in applied counselling. As a trainer, I have run courses on aspects of counselling theory and practice, ethics and professional development. I have also co-led personal development groups for counsellor trainees. I currently work with self-referred clients and clients referred by a variety of agencies; such as, the Family Court, Vitae, Victim Support and medical practitioners as part of a local Primary Health Office initiative.

I provide professional (clinical) supervision for people working in a variety of settings, including counsellors and others who work in people orientated occupations. The larger part of my clinical practice is working with couples. Mostly they come to counselling when they are struggling to communicate. Often they are caught up in recurring and distressing patterns of interacting leaving them feeling frustrated, hurt and angry. They are often dealing with the pressures of changing circumstances in and around the relationship; and sometimes one or both of them is trying to find a balance between the “we” and the “I” of being in an enduring relationship. Couples have a myriad of problems to address and resolve in their life together and being more understanding, compassionate, empathic and trusting can help.

Mostly people attend counselling because they want to feel happier about themselves and they want to get on better with the people in their lives. Some individual clients want help with one or more personal experiences, like: depression and anxiety; stress; grief and loss; migration; life transitions; relationship difficulties; trauma associated with abuse, crime and social disorder; sexuality; trust and trustworthiness. Others want help with enduring personal experiences such as, feelings of emptiness and isolation, low self worth, lack of direction and purpose, and chronic impatience and fears of rejection. I work with individuals, couples and groups.

I am a clinical member of the International Transactional Analysis Association; a member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors and a member of NZ Transactional Analysis Association.