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About Dr Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling, based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK, HX7 8HJ
And his main counselling and psychotherapy service
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Updated on 6th April 2024
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Hello,
Whatever your problem might be, there is a good chance that I can help you!
My name is Jim Byrne, and I have a doctoral degree in counselling.
I have more than 25 years experience as a professional counsellor/ coach/ psychotherapist in private practice.
Over the past 25 years, I have helped more than 1,250 individuals (including many couples) to overcome problems of anger, anxiety, depression, stress, poor self-confidence or self-esteem; couple conflict; communication skills difficulties; childhood trauma problems; personality and attachment issues; and all manner of problems at home and in work.
My doctoral degree in counselling (DCoun) is from the University of Manchester, UK (2002-2009). I also hold: A master’s degree in education (MA(Ed)) from the Open University, UK (1991-1994). And a diploma in counselling psychology and psychotherapy (DipCPPsych-Rus) from Rusland College, Bath, UK (2001-2003).
I am an accredited Fellow of the International Society of Psychotherapy and Counselling (FISPC); and a member of Counselling (CCC-Reg).
I also have two certificates in Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (RE&CBT), from the Albert Ellis Institute, NYC, with the University of Birmingham (November 2005); and the old Institute for REBT, in Bristol, UK (November 1999) – though I no longer practice anything like CBT/REBT.
Instead, I practice an emotive-cognitive-narrative system of counselling which integrates the best and most useful elements of the fifteen or so systems I have studied, including minor fragments of CBT; combined with lots of Attachment theory, Affect regulation theory, Object relations theory, Personality Adaptations theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), Person-centered counselling, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt therapy, and many others. (My system is called Emotive-Cognitive Embodied Narrative Therapy, or E-CENT counselling for short. What is E-CENT counselling?***) And it is probably the deepest, most rounded system of counselling and therapy currently on offer anywhere in the world!
E-CENT counselling also incorporates insights into the body-brain-mind links – (including the importance of diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation, meditation, breathing, and so on).
So we deal with you as a whole person, and not just with your ‘mind’.
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If you would like my help, please contact me today:
You can contact me by phone: 01422 843 629 (from inside the UK)
Or 44 1422 843 629 from outside the UK).
Or Email: Dr Jim’s email.***
Back to ABC Counselling and Psychotherapy Services Home Page.***
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For a downloadable information pack about Dr Jim Byrne’s main service, please click this link: Enhanced Main Counselling Service, downloadable info pack, February
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More information about Dr Jim Byrne
Creator of Emotive-Cognitive Embodied-Narrative Therapy (E-CENT)
(In partnership with Renata Taylor-Byrne)
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If you wanted to create an effective and creative psychotherapist, you could begin by giving a bright child two totally f—ed up parents; and throwing him or her into a traumatic childhood.
That was where I started from.
Because of how my parents were, I suffered extreme malnutrition, emotional and physical abuse, emotional neglect, and bullying; resulting in childhood developmental trauma.
If you wanted to know how I felt, from infancy to about the age of 30-32 years, this brick man image – below – would just about sum that state up. Frozen, dissociated, emotionally unintelligent, terrified of life and everybody in it.
I had serious cognitive and emotive deficits, which took years to correct.
I went through a partial Freudian analysis at the age of twenty-two years, combined with music therapy, group therapy, relaxation therapy, art therapy, and other processes.
But I had to wait to the age of thirty years to meet somebody who could love me enough to melt the ice in my childhood heart, and to stimulate the Little Professor in my head. And later (in 1980) I met my “other half” who helped me to grow and change.
I have written about the first forty years of my life – in fictionalized autobiographical form – and published that book with the title, The Disconnected Heart of Daniel O’Beeve.
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By the time I was forty, I had been through a number of systems of counselling and therapy, including couples therapy with a TA counsellor, and that led on to studying interpersonal communication skills and relationship skills, and then publishing two books on couple relationships, and how to have a good sex-love relationship.
– How to Quickly Fix your Couple Relationship: A brief DIY handbook for serious lovers
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Renata and I went through six sessions of marriage guidance with Marjorie Ashdown, in Leeds, in 1984; and then we got married in 1986, after having gone off and studied relationship skills, assertiveness, communication skills, and worked on our baggage from the past.
– How to Have a Wonderful, Loving Relationship: Helpful insights for couples and lovers
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In 1992-93, I began to study and teach Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which is the original form of CBT. I trained in that system and set up as an REBT Therapist in 1998. But by 2007 I had become disillusioned by this system for a number of reasons, most of which revolved about the failure of REBT to take account of the fact that a counselling client is a human body-brain-mind, located in a specific social environment, and that therefore we have to take account of their diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation, current social relationships, current sources of stress, historical relationships, and history of stress and trauma, and so on. REBT has a simplistic focus on the beliefs of the client as the main (and often sole) determinant of the client’s emotional state.
I wrote up my critique of the limitations of the REBT/CBT approach, which focuses too much on the thoughts and beliefs of the client, and not enough on their physical/emotional/social existence, and their dependence on adequate nutrition, sleep and physical exercise, etc.
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By the time I was 45, I felt more like this man – (Shunryu Suzuki, Zen teacher): Alive, alert, grounded, centred, happy, healthy, living in the present moment.
Overall, I’ve studied more than 15 different systems of counselling and therapy, and Renata Taylor-Byrne and I have integrated the best elements of each of them with those physical sciences which also help to understand how to be physically and emotionally well. These include:
– Sleep science;
– The science of physical activity and exercise;
– Nutritional science, including foods and supplements;
– The science of tension and relaxation;
(Most of the research on sleep, diet and physical exercise was done by Renata Taylor-Byrne, my wife, and written up in books that she wrote, or that we co-authored.)
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The information above should give you some kind of sense of who I am, and the journey I’ve been on; and which I am going to continue to be on for quite some time to come!
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More recently, I spent a year or so summarizing everything I knew about childhood developmental trauma, and all the processes that I have learned or developed to help anybody to recover from a life of trauma.
I summarized all that information in my book which is titled, Transforming Traumatic Dragons: How to recover from a history of trauma – using a whole body-brain-mind approach
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More information about my counselling services
Welcome to my unique problem solving and personal development process (which combines elements of counselling psychology; coaching psychology; problem solving strategies; communication skills; empowering philosophies of life; healthy lifestyle guidance; grief counselling and trauma recovery; and emotional, behavioural and relationship skills training/ coaching/ counselling [including assertiveness training]).
This is a richer and deeper approach than conventional counselling, coaching and psychotherapy, as will be obvious from the following Information pack: Enhanced Main Counselling Service, downloadable info pack, February 2024
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Dr Jim Byrne – The Counselling Sherpa
You may be aware that Woody Allen once quipped that, if you want to be successful in life, you have to choose your parents very carefully!
Of course, this was said with tongue-in-cheek; but the truth is that who your parents were, and how your childhood shaped up, has a massive amount to do with how your adult life works out!
T.S. Elliot and D.W. Winnicott both pointed out that “home is where we start from”; and John Bowlby taught us that, if we get “good enough mothering” in our family of origin, then we will tend to have secure relationships in our adult life – (which is an important part of the foundation of health, wealth and happiness!).
We also have to figure out – when we are young and innocent and largely unformed – how to get along with mum and dad, and others around us, and later our schoolteachers. Therefore, in the first few years of life, at home, we form habitual ways of adapting to mum and dad, and those adaptations then become the core of our personalities, which we act out as non-conscious habits in our adult relationships.
But do not despair. I specialize in helping people to re-write those early childhood marks, scars, distortions and mis-directions. The map you left home with has led you into the swamp in which you now live. I can guide you out!
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– Are you struggling with major emotional, behavioural or relationship problems with which you cannot cope, or to which you cannot find a solution?
– If so, I can help.
Many of my former clients have attested to the effectiveness of my approach to helping them:
Unsolicited Client Testimonials.
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– Do you learn well from reading and writing, supported by person-to-person counselling meetings?
– If you answered Yes, then I can help you.
– However, if you answered No, then I suggest you need to approach a more traditional talk-therapy counsellor! I would not be the right person for your learning style.
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Jim Byrne and Renata Taylor-Byrne, after 38 years of marriage, and 43 years as a couple
I have developed the most comprehensive system of counselling and psychotherapy, which takes into account the following aspects of your life (if relevant):
– Your early childhood attachment experience with your mother or main carer;
– Your personality adaptations to your parents or main carers;
– Your adverse childhood experiences, and childhood developmental traumas (if any/or many);
– Your current experience of being engaged in a close marriage, or marriage-like relationship;
– Your current life stressors and sources of suffering;
– Your current approach to lifestyle self-management – (including diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation, and so on).
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My Enhanced main service involves the following elements:
– Formal assessment (using six or eight or more focused questionnaires);
– Three (or four) counselling meetings (face to face in Hebden Bridge; or over Skype or Zoom or the telephone system); 60 minutes each meeting.
– An extensive and highly detailed report – based on the formal assessment (with questionnaires) and the informal assessment (conducted in conversation in our first counselling meeting) – which will provide you with a lot of helpful insights into who you are being and where the pitfalls are in your current life and lifestyle. (This report is most often sent in two, three or more “chunks”, over a period of weeks, to reduce your workload).
(For a couple of examples of the kinds of reports I’ve produced for recent clients, please go to Examples of reports.)
– And this is followed by six or eight, or more psycho-educational documents, over a period of about 18-32 weeks (and sometimes longer). Those documents contain the main knowledge and skill that you need to learn in order to overcome your main problem(s) which you discussed with me, and/or revealed in your questionnaire answers.
(For information about what people have said about my reports and follow-up documents, please go to: Feedback from clients).
Because this service is so extensive, and intensive, and takes a lot of time on my part, it cannot be cheap. So if you need a low-cost service, this is not the one for you.
For more information about my Enhanced Main Service, please download the following document:
Enhanced Main Counselling Service, downloadable info pack, February 2024
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Recent Client Testimonial
♣ “Hi Jim, I’m very grateful for your latest report, which is highly detailed and analytical, as always. The content about the (personal details about my relationship) is fascinating. I think your analysis is brilliant, and it sums up so much about my life that I could never have put into words. … Thanks again…”
M.H., Wigan, Lancs. (Three “single packages” of my main service, via the telephone; followed by detailed reports).
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Postscript:
If you do not learn well from reading and writing activities, then you will not benefit from my appraoch to counselling/assessment/reports/psycho-education. You need to see a traditional talk therapist.
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Dr Jim Byrne in 2023
Areas of counselling and therapy specialism
Here is a list of my main specialisms. Each of those specialisms has its own information page. To go to any specific information page, please click the relevant link below:
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- Individual counselling for couple relationship problems
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- How to break free from your negative childhood conditioning
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- How to rewire your brain for better relationshps (The Inner Couple Model)
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- Psychological first aid after a recent traumatic experience
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- Anger management services
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- Habit change guidance and support
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- General Online/Skype/Zoom counselling (including trauma therapy and attachment therapy)
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- Stress management services
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- Depression and anxiety counselling services
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- Health and wellbeing coaching services
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Or take a look at our current books in print, at the ABC Bookstore.
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To find out more, please go to:
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– About my Enhanced Main Counselling Psychology Service
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– About my Couples Therapy service
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– About my Anger Management service
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– About my Trauma Recovery service
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– Counselling in Hebden Bridge, face to face
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– Counselling via Skype and web camera
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– Counselling via the telephone system
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I have received a large number of unsolicited client testimonials, hundreds of which can be found by clicking the link above.
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I am a Fellow Member of the International Society of Psychotherapy and Counselling (FISPC), and a Registered Member of Counselling (CCC.Reg).
I am in my twenty-sixth year (as at the 2nd of November 2023) as a counsellor in private practice, in Hebden Bridge, and all over the world via the telephone system, Skype-webcam, and by email. During that time, I have helped more than twelve hundred clients, and some of them have sent me unsolicited testimonials about what they gained from working with me.***
Three sample client testimonials:
♣ To Jim: “…At our previous session, your main intervention had the precision of an acupuncture needle hitting the spot. I felt a great sense of relief from depression and stress immediately. I felt so light and free. Thank you. … See you next week”.
J.K.K., Wakefield, West Yorkshire. (Three sessions of F2F counselling for emotional distress).
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♣ “Dear Jim, I’ve been thinking back over the past year, and I really appreciate the great benefit I got from your guidance of my self-reflection. I have learned so much from you. And I am so much more sorted out than I was. Thank you”.
P.A.N., Crag Vale, Calderdale. (36 sessions of Face 2 face counselling for stress and anxiety, and relationship maladaptation).
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♣ “Hey Jim, … I continue to benefit from the Mind Hut, or Windows Model, at every opportunity when I’m in a bad emotional state, including depressive moments. It takes just half an hour or less and I recover a good emotional state that is also durable. … With appreciation for the work you do, I salute you and I will keep you as a reference point”.
M.V.S., Madrid, Spain (Two email counselling sessions for depression and stress).
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Further information:
Pleasae go back to my Homepage: ABC Counselling and Psychotherapy Services Home Page.***
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You can contact me by phone: 01422 843 629 (from inside the UK)
Or 44 1422 843 629 from outside the UK).
Email: Dr Jim’s email.***
Back to ABC Counselling and Psychotherapy Services Home Page.***
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I have also researched and written (and/or co-authored) more than twenty-three books on counselling, personal development and self-help related subjects – including anger, anxiety, depression; diet, exercise, sleep; stress and couple relationships; how to write a new life for yourself – plus some stories – and brief descriptions can be viewed on the homepage of the ABC Bookstore Online UK.***
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ABC Counselling and Psychotherapy, Hebden Bridge 