David Dowell

After thirty-three years in a relatively successful career where I felt like “a square peg in a round hole,” both my internal and external life fell apart until, ultimately, I ‘lost’ everybody and everything once dear to me and, above all I suppose, myself.

Whilst the warning signs had been there for a long time, I ignored them and disregarded all the words of advice and even pleas to stop doing what I was doing to myself. Critically, I ignored my self-care and self-compassion, developing unhelpful and ultimately destructive coping mechanisms and experiencing burnout. After unsustainable attempts at ‘masking’ what was really going on, I finally reached out for help and have found myself over the past five plus years making the most of life, or as I have often heard it expressed 'just being', largely because I am more thankful and self-aware now, and also have found a meaning and purpose to my life, in spite of the many challenges life has a tendency to throw at us. Training to be a counsellor and psychotherapist has been one of the ways in which I have found meaning and purpose in my life.

I specialise in trauma and abuse - this need not only arise from such events as major accidents, rape and other sexual abuse, and physical assault for example, but can also involve generational, emotional and psychological trauma, including 'silent treatment' and neglect, and adverse childhood experiences ('ACEs'). The trauma might arise from one specific event or it can be compounded by a number of traumatic experiences, often referred to as C-PTSD.

In my day job, I deal with people experiencing drug and alcohol problems and, happily, recovery from these problems. Anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts of drinking or using, a negative and critical inner voice, dissociation and suicidal ideations often co-exist with both trauma and dependency - there is a widely regarded view that trauma underlies a lot of addictive behaviours which are only a symptom, rather than the cause, of challenging and unhealthy strategies employed to either cope with or dull emotions, feelings, possibly even life itself.

I can help and suppport individuals in learning new, more helpful coping skills and strategies, and ensuring the individual feels both 'heard' and safe through somatic techniques, in addition to validating the person's feelings, by concentrating on the nervous system and our unconscious fight or flight responses.

I have lived experience of ADHD, in my case, a late-in-life diagnosis. I understand and can 'feel' the difficulties in coming to terms with the implications and consequences of such a diagnosis, including learning to manage often challenging presentations associated with ADHD such as Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria ('RSD') and sometimes anger that can be experienced about years 'wasted' or made unnecessarily difficult before receiving a diagnosis. I also deal with individuals experiencing problems with self-image and self-worth, whether as a result of suffering from ACEs, silent treatment when a child or having suffered gaslighting or emotional and mental abuse in adult relationships at the hands of those seeking to bully, coerce and control others.

Qualifications

• Accredited Member of National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)
• King’s Trust Level 5 Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling Practice
• Prince’s Trust Level 4 Diploma in Counselling Skills and Theory
• Trained ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) practitioner
• Trauma Informed & Psychologically Informed Environment practitioner
• Certificate in Motivational Interviewing
• Certficate in Acceptance & Commitment ('ACT') therapy
• Four plus years’ experience of working in the Alcohol and Drug Addiction sector, most recently as a Recovery Support keyworker.
• Lived experience of ADHD including RSD, anxiety, addiction and recovery, codependency and suicidal ideations.