Counsellors
Note: This service is for members of NWMRA teams only
NWMRA Wellbeing Support
Background
Team Members across the region are able to access funded counselling and psychological
support to promote wellbeing and recovery from traumatic events. Team Members are able to contact the counsellors or psychologists direct using the below contact details and this is an anonymous process.
The professional will invoice NWMRA with no confidential information shared. It has been
agreed that team members will have a standard number of 6 sessions offered, but if the
professional and team member feel they need more sessions to complete the work, then this
can be applied for by the professional.
Team Members may choose to contact counsellors or psychologists to complete a wellbeing
screen after a potentially traumatising event or if there is something happening in life
generally (can be rescue team related or outside life) that might impact on volunteering or
general wellbeing.
What is a normal trauma response?
It is normal after a traumatic event to have the following symptoms for the first few days.
If you are continuing to experience these after around 3 weeks you may want to contact a professional for a wellbeing screen or use the following tool:
What support do I need?
If you are experiencing general mental health issues:
If you feel that you would benefit from a more outdoor focused counselling or mindfulness walks approach, Belinda can offer the following:
In-person – Outdoor therapy: With over 11years’ post-qualifying experience as a therapist, I am passionate about taking my practice outdoors and to that end, I focus on offering Outdoor therapy, also known as Walk & Talk therapy – in the Mold/Clwydian range area
In the same way that indoor therapy offers a space where we explore aspects of our own nature, so the outdoors can offer an alternative space in nature, where we might feel more in tune with this process. Typically, outdoor therapy can take place in such spaces as urban parks and gardens, to country parks, woodlands, hills and vales and sometimes on beaches.
The same work that you might bring to work through in an indoor space can also be explored in the outdoors and working in this way offers not only the benefits of being in nature, but also we work with our responses to nature and the shape and feel of the landscape that we’re walking through or sitting in. Working in this way insights arise into the nature of past or current experiences and relationships.
Indoor or remote counselling doesn’t always fit with everyone. For some, perhaps those who enjoy being outdoors, or find the formality of the indoor setting a little off-putting or intimidating, taking sessions outside into the space of natural surroundings where client and therapist walk side-by-side, can feel a more appropriate setting.
There is much to support taking sessions outdoors, not least the natural endorphins that are released when we spend time being and moving in the outdoors. There is also research to suggest that moving, being in and relating to nature helps regulate the nervous system.
Nature as Secure Base… Research suggests that moving, being in and relating to the natural world, the land through which we move, can act as a constant within which we can learn to experience feelings of relaxation, safety and security – a space within which we can learn a way of relating to ourselves and others that feels safe and secure – a secure base. Working in this way, we can build resilience, emotional well-being, confidence and new ways of relating to others. When we take time to create space for ourselves in this setting, it offer us a way of finding the clarity and energy to explore those things that are troubling us, finding new ways of moving forward into the next phase of our lives and feeling a growing connection to the land and communities we live in.
Practicalities
My Outdoor therapy base: for outdoor therapy, I work within the Loggerheads Country Park around and among the Clwydians hills, with the town of Mold to the East and Ruthin to the West in North East Wales.
How will it work? I start with sessions online, using MS Teams. After a few sessions, if we both feel comfortable working together, we can then form a plan to take therapy outdoors…
Walk and Talk: meeting at sites as agreed in advance. The routes for these sessions will either be circular or linear involving turning back at the halfway point and heading back to the start. Routes will initially be decided by me, but over time agreed upon together.
Confidentiality: unlike indoor therapy, confidentiality outdoors is not so easy to guarantee and as I guide you through the different spaces we move through, becomes something we both share awareness of and responsibility for. If, as sometimes happens, we come across other people, I will manage the conversation so that our confidentiality is protected.
Counsellors Contact Details
Gwenan Hughes
Pwllheli
Bilingual
07824905072
Jayne Gabriel
Wrexham area
Email jaynerowlands64@hotmail.co.uk
Mobile 07809473534
Jill Harrington.
Porthmadog
Email: jillht4c@gmail.com
Mob: 07918667245
Meleri Jones
ONLINE ONLY
Bilingual
Zuzana Baston.
Aberystwyth.
07875703550.
Karen Aerts
Llandudno
Bay Counselling
Belinda Gammon (outdoor therapy)
Tel: 07851 218 014
Email: belinda@wayofmindfulness.co.uk
Psychologist Contact Details
Karen Hawkings
How Can Psychological Therapy Help Someone Struggling With Traumatic Stress?
Contributed by Karen Hawkings
A psychologist helps someone with traumatic stress by:
-
Understanding the problem
-
Creating safety
-
Teaching coping skills
-
Processing the trauma
-
Helping them move forward
Trauma-focused therapy
Once the person is ready, the psychologist may use evidence-based treatments like:
-
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (especially trauma-focused CBT)
-
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
These approaches help the person:
-
Process traumatic memories safely
-
Reduce their emotional intensity
-
Change unhelpful beliefs (e.g., guilt, fear, shame)
Psychological Therapy (Psychotherapy)
-
A deeper, more structured treatment for mental health conditions.
-
Often longer-term and explores underlying patterns, past experiences, or unconscious processes.
-
Used for conditions like anxiety disorders, depression, trauma, personality disorders.
-
Delivered by trained professionals such as clinical psychologists or therapists.
-
A well-known example is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which helps people identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviours.
A psychologist would usually take a structured, step-by-step approach when working with someone experiencing traumatic stress (often linked to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
The goal is not just to reduce symptoms, but to help the person regain a sense of safety, control, and stability.
Psychological therapy Involves working with the mind and the body
Working with the mind
Trauma can change thoughts, memories, and beliefs. A psychologist helps by:
-
Talking through the experience in a safe way
-
Identifying unhelpful thoughts (e.g., “I’m not safe” or “It was my fault”)
-
Replacing them with more balanced, realistic ones
They might use approaches like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help change thinking patterns and reduce anxiety.
👉 Goal: make thoughts and memories less frightening and more manageable
🧘 Working with the body
Trauma also affects the body—people may feel tense, shaky, or constantly “on edge” (a survival response).
Psychologists help calm the body using:
-
Breathing exercises
-
Relaxation or grounding techniques
-
Helping the person notice physical sensations safely
-
Some therapies like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing ( EMDR) also involve body-based processes (like eye movements) to reduce the intensity of traumatic memories.
👉 Goal: reduce physical stress reactions and feel safe again
-
Mind work → “What am I thinking?”
-
Body work → “What am I feeling physically?”
Both together → recovery from trauma