Close
Enter your
text here

Meet the Counsellors

FIONA SMITH BA MBACP Reg
BACP registration 089247

Fiona was a career social worker and counsellor specialising in mental health issues before setting up and managing a Big Lottery funded five-years NHS-recognised project called Conwy Refrain (under the auspices of North Wales charities Aberconwy Mind and CAIS) which provided specialist counselling for dual-diagnosis clients battling severe depression and addiction. Fiona has also worked as a counsellor in NHS Primary Care. Fiona has long experience of helping clients with trauma and other complex issues, and with alcohol and substance misuse problems (often a presentation of deeper underlying issues).

Fiona, with Mervyn, set up in independent practice as The Conwy Counsellors (www.theconwycounsellors.co.uk), offering counselling, counselling supervision, and mental health courses and workshops to private clients and to statutory and third sector bodies. Fiona is an experienced group therapy leader and group trainer, and has wide experience of group and one-to-one contact with clients from many walks of life. 

She offers a rolling programme of CPD and personal development workshops to mental health and other healthcare professionals. Fiona is an experienced counselling supervisor, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) provider, and Mindfulness practitioner and course provider, and has lectured on counselling to students in three North Wales colleges in recent years.

Qualifications:

  • Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) and BA Social Science degree, Sheffield City University (1985)
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling, Coleg Llandrillo with Bangor University (2012)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Counselling Supervision, University of Chester (2014)
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) practitioner Intermediate (BPS approved modular course), Mindfulness Training Ltd with University of Birmingham (2014)
  • Mindfulness trainer, Level 1 Training to Teach Mindfulness-based Courses, Bangor University (2014)
  • Mindfulness supervisor, Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (2015)

MERVYN WYNNE JONES TD MA MBACP Accred
BACP registration 080818

Mervyn was until 2019 chair of the BACP’s Private Practice division. He is now a member of the BACP’s governance Public Protection Committee, reporting to the BACP Board. After obtaining a Masters degree in Clinical Counselling, Mervyn set up, with Fiona, an independent general counselling practice and is also a long-term sessional counsellor with a charity for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. He has third sector counselling experience in bereavement and in substance misuse presentation and was a trustee with The Churches’ Counselling Service in Wales. He has been a volunteer with the Samaritans.

Mervyn has for many years been actively involved with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) including Good Practice Guidance committee and professional conduct panellist work. As a BACP-registered author, he has written BACP professional learning resources. Mervyn was active in setting up and establishing the charitable Change Step mental health and peer mentoring intervention for military veterans in Wales. Mervyn comes from a journalism and government public relations background, with a long career in and alongside the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence. As an army reservist, he gained operational experience in both the Gulf and the Balkans and, as an MOD civilian, he spent five years in Northern Ireland. Mervyn retired early from government service to embark on a second career in counselling.

Qualifications:

  • MA Clinical Counselling, University of Chester (2011)
  • Accreditation to the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy (2015)
  • Command and Staff Course (Army Reserve), Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham (2003)

 

Publications:

Thresholds, Spring 2013, Faith in a Foxhole

Therapy Today, October 2013, Soldier, Veteran, Survivor