Steven Mills

Freelance Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counsellor                                                                                                                               Aug 2020 – Present

• Registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy MBACP(Accred).
• Autonomously set up a busy and successful private practice that is grounded in a humanistic, person-centred approach.
• Confident in assessing risk and managing my own diverse client caseload, combined with client referrals from Women’s aid and The Therapy Quarters.

Women’s Aid                                                                                                                                                                                          (Sept 2021- Present)

• Offering therapeutic counselling sessions to survivors of sexual violence and abuse. 
• Created, developed, and facilitated a new male peer support group.                                                                                             

The Therapy Quarters                                                                                                                                                                            (Aug 2020 – Present) 

• Successfully offering a safe, effective counselling service to vulnerable adult clients that have been experiencing difficulties with anxiety, depression, bereavement, trauma, suicidal ideation, anger, insecure attachments, stress, culture, neurodiversity, identity etc.
• Current experience of adapting to working remotely by phone and online to meet client needs.

Richmond Fellowship                                                                                                                                                                              Sept 2019 – Sept 2021

Mental health crisis recovery support worker 

• Devised a plethora of person-centred interventions that promoted recovery and empowered an individual’s ability to cope when experiencing a mental health crisis.    
• Delivered safe therapeutic sessions with individuals and groups, that reduced risk, prevented hospital admissions and maintained positive well-being.    

Newlife- The charity for disabled children                                           May 2018 – Sept 2019

Care services administrator

• Pioneered and collated the ‘House to Home guide’ (published on the company website).
• Liaised with families and professionals to gather complex clinical health information.
• Completed vital administrative tasks with extensive use of all Microsoft programs.
• Working within confidentiality, data protection and health and safety procedures.

International Work and Travel experience                                         Jun 2017- May 2018

Australia, New Zealand and Singapore

• Worked, lived, and travelled with people from diverse backgrounds, ages and cultures.
• Successfully gained employment in hostel work, transport driving and agricultural farm work.
• Used budgeting skills and took decisive action when navigating new cities and countries.   

Bromford Housing Group                                                                   Jan 2014 – Jun 2017

Senior/Locum support worker                                                             (March 2016- Jun 2017)

• Extremely responsible role. Travelled to a wide range of different local authorities and adapted effectively to meet the service requirements of existing support teams. 
• Contributed to colleague development and successfully met housing related support requirements (conducted 121’s, attended external partnership meetings, safeguarding etc.).        

Floating Support Worker & Return home support worker                 (Jan 2014- March 2016) 

• Provided housing related support to vulnerable families/individuals and enabled them to achieve their life aspirations and goals.
• Supported in managing personal finances, maximized benefits, promoted daily living skills and equipped people with the tools to deal with everyday challenges independently.
• Identified, designed and delivered tailored support needs for a range of challenging and diverse individuals based on an assessment of needs.               
• Actively worked in partnership with the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent trusts, to access specialist support, in areas such as: substance misuse and learning disabilities.
• Filled out housing applications, liaising with local authorities and housing associations to obtain the most suitable housing for the homeless, which included sheltered accommodation.
• Prevented re-admittance to hospital through regular home visits and identified any potential risks, including safeguarding procedures (signposted to other agencies if necessary). 
• Successfully reduced the time the social care team needed to spend on housing related issues.

1. Staffordshire University                                                                      Sept 2016 – Jun 2020   

• Graduated with a University Professional Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling Level 6, Distinction (June 2020).  Achieved “Best performance on a Counselling course award”
• Attained a University Certificate in Counselling Level 4, Distinction (June 2017).

1. South Staffordshire College                                                           Sept 2009 – Jun 2011

• Gained Access to higher education diploma in combined studies. Distinction. 
• Volunteer Counsellor at a sexual violence and abuse charity (Sept 2018 - October 2021).

• Volunteered at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau as a Gateway assessor (Nov 2012 - Jan 2014). 
• Finished the London Marathon in 2015 and raised £2000 for Action Against Hunger.

Learned how to surf in Portugal 2023 and Morocco 2024