Valerie Stanley-BrooksBACP

Valerie Stanley-Brooks is a counsellor with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and more than 25 years of experience. She offers calm, practical support for people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma and a wide range of life challenges. Valerie writes plainly and listens closely to each person’s story before shaping the work together.

She draws on several approaches, including client-centred methods and trauma-focused work, to suit individual needs. Sessions focus on clear goals, practical coping strategies, and exploring patterns that get in the way of feeling better. Valerie also uses cognitive tools to help with anxiety, mood and unhelpful thinking.

Her background includes roles in education, therapeutic services and voluntary settings, so she is used to working with many different life situations. That experience informs how she supports people through transitions such as bereavement, separation, or becoming a parent.

Valerie helps people tackle issues like addictions, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting stresses, body image and career strain. She also supports those dealing with family of origin problems, adoption and foster care matters, and compassion fatigue for carers.

People can expect an approachable, non-judgemental counsellor who offers resources and exercises alongside conversational therapy. The emphasis is on finding practical ways to manage symptoms and make change. To begin, prospective clients follow the site's Start Therapy process and schedule sessions based on availability.

How Valerie’s approaches translate to online counselling

Client-centred work places the person’s needs and pace at the centre. In practice this means the counsellor listens, reflects, and helps clients set the agenda for each session. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing simple, practical strategies to change mood and behaviour. This approach can be useful for anxiety, low mood and sleeping problems. Trauma-focused methods aim to reduce the ongoing impact of past harm through paced, stabilising work and coping skills to manage distress.

Choosing the right approach is part of the first few conversations. The therapist works collaboratively to decide which methods fit a person’s goals, preferences and life circumstances. That may mean mixing elements from different models and adjusting the plan as progress is made.

Session formats are not specified in the biographical source, so please confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit counselling into a busy schedule, cut out travel time and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It also offers a way to continue continuity of care when life is in flux, while the counsellor helps set achievable steps you can try between sessions.