Karen Pinder

About Me

Hello, and thank you for visiting. I’d like to share a little about my background and how I came to counselling.
I originally trained as an aesthetician in 1985 and qualified in aromatherapy in 1986. I ran my own practice and have always valued a holistic approach to wellbeing. After taking time out to raise my children, I found myself drawn to working with young people and began gaining qualifications to support them both emotionally and educationally.
Over the course of 14 years in secondary education, I worked closely with students facing a wide range of challenges, including learning difficulties, anxiety, low self-esteem, bereavement, self-harm, and anger issues. As a learning mentor, I offered one-to-one emotional support, ran small therapeutic groups, and co-managed an online counselling service in partnership with Relate. I also worked alongside educational psychologists to help young people overcome personal barriers to learning.
My experience supporting students through difficult times led me to train more formally as a counsellor. Since then, I’ve volunteered with charities that provide low-cost counselling to adults with complex needs—many of whom would otherwise struggle to access support.
I have experience working with a wide range of issues, including:
anxiety, depression, bereavement, addiction, childhood trauma, coercive control, and emotional or physical abuse.
As part of my professional development, I’ve completed specialist training with Cruse Bereavement Support and the Foundation for Infant Loss, and I’ve worked directly with clients coping with the loss of a baby or young child.
Since 2016, I’ve been in private practice, offering one-to-one counselling for individuals, young people, couples and groups. I developed and led a Loss & Bereavement support group in partnership with Oakwood Surgery and their Practice Health Champions, funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
My practice has grown to include a small team of counsellors. We support student counsellors by offering placements, and we offer reduced-cost sessions through our team of qualified counsellors—providing more accessible options for those on waiting lists or limited budgets.
Whether you’re facing a recent challenge or something long-standing, I offer a compassionate, non-judgemental space to explore what’s going on for you

Supervision

Further to counselling I also offer supervision for professionals. My supervision training was at the Manchester institute of psychotherapy. I offer a reduced rate for student counsellors. Link to the supervision page https://fymc.co.uk/groups/

Training:

• Diploma in therapeutic counselling
• Working with Special Needs ie Autism, ADHD, Learning difficulties & emotional issues.
• Learning mentor
• Awareness in Bereavement Care with Cruse Bereavement
• Cruse bereavement
• Pregnancy & Infant Loss
• Safeguarding
• Aromatherapy
• L7 Supervision training

I am also: