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About: Services

About Acorn Counselling Therapy

Some more detail about Peter and his experience.

Acorn Counselling Therapy is my private practice, where I work as a psychotherapeutic counsellor. Here you can see me, Peter, in this video.

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Finding the right counsellor to work with is key, as it will affect how you think and feel in the counselling sessions. I have many years experience supporting people with their mental health in my private practice and in the 3rd sector for a charity. I specialise in counselling for the LGBTQ community and you can discover more here about my LGBTQ experience and credentials. So it is important to introduce and tell you about myself.

 

The type of counselling I use involves Transactional Analysis (TA), if you want to find out about TA go to our Approach page. For more about me, read on here.

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The focus of my therapeutic work is on supporting people to live with greater autonomy in their life. I recognise that we can all feel constrained by people and society around us. I have seen personally and professionally how these constraints impact our ability to be ourselves and affects our wellbeing. 

 

I also understand how our early life with the experiences we go through, shapes who we become. As an adult, we can still think, feel, and behave as we did when we were young, so understanding how you operate today, is essential. Gaining this awareness can help you live your life today with greater autonomy and authenticity. 

 

I have supported people with their mental health in many settings. 
 

  • In my private practice working with people in Brighton and Hove and across the UK, face-to-face or online.  

  • I work for an LGBTQ charity that support people’s mental health and I support and assess individuals seeking help with their mental health. 

  • I have experience of working with the elderly, running a reminiscence group for people living with dementia in the city hospital. 

  • I have supported people with acute mental health needs in a psychiatric unit. 

  • I volunteered as a Samaritan for 5 years listening to people in emotional crisis. 

 

My experience and training in counselling and psychotherapy means I offer an excellent standard of therapeutic work that looks not just at the effects of mental health issues facing people today, but also the cause of these effects that relate to events in the past. 

Introducing Peter Golder

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Experience, training and areas of specialism

I have worked with people who have been affected by many different types of issues especially within the LGBTQ+ community. My top specialisms are;

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Identity, Anxiety, Gender identity, Gender dysphoria, Sexuality.

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I worked for the Brighton and Hove branch of Samaritans as a listening volunteer supporting people who were suicidal or in emotional distress on the phone, by email and by text. 

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I volunteered as a counsellor with Mindout, a charity in Brighton, resulting in me working with many clients from the LGBTQ+ community. This, coupled with my own LGBTQ identity, gives me a passion and understanding for Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD).

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I assist with the running of a counselling service supporting the mental health needs of the LGBTQ community in Brighton and Hove.

Qualifications

​General Certificate in Online Counselling

Diploma in Counselling - The Link Centre
Advanced Counselling Skills - The Link Centre
BSc (Hons) Psychology - The Open University
BA (Hons) Music - University of Leeds

Professional development training

Introduction to counselling with couples

Certificate in Working with Couples

Level 3 Safeguarding Adults

Trauma, the Brain and Recovery
Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD)
Suicide intervention
Working therapeutically with sandtrays
Working with problem gamblers
Working with Difference and Diversity
Gender Identity and Transgender awareness

Code of ethics follwed

UKATA (United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis)

NCS (National Counselling Society)

Areas of counselling covered

  • Anxiety

  • Affairs and betrayals

  • Anger management

  • Bereavement

  • Bullying

  • Childhood bullying

  • Depression

  • Discrimination

  • Family Issues

  • Feeling sad

  • Gambling

  • Generalised anxiety disorder

  • Gender

  • Gender Dysphoria

  • Health anxiety

  • Health and illness

  • HIV/AIDS

  • Identity issues

  • Internet usage

  • LGBTQ issues

  • Low self-esteem

  • Low self-confidence

  • Loneliness

  • Non-binary

  • Passive aggression

  • Redundancy

  • Relationship problems

  • Self-harm

  • Sexuality

  • Smoking

  • Stress

  • Suicidal thoughts

  • Transgender issues

  • Trauma

  • Queer

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