Team Biographies
Our people are among the most talented in the Industry. It would be our pleasure to put our extensive experience to work for you.
William John Roberts Dip.Couns. C.I.S.D.
Certificated, Accredited Trauma Counsellor, C.C.C.M.I.S.T.S.S.,
Member of Adlerian Society for Individual Psychotherapy, Accredited,Emergency 999 Services Trauma Counsellor,
Member British Holistic Medical Society,
Director and Counsellor Family Trauma Group International,
Accredited S.T.E.P. Parenting Trainer, Trainer/Therapist for calming the Family Storm Programme (Anger management for the family).
N.L.P.Professional Certificated Life Coach,
Certificated in Eicksonian Hypnosis,
Certificated in Cognitive Behavioural Hypno-Therapy,
Certificated in Solution Focused HypnotherapyTherapy,
Certificated in Solution Focused Counselling Skills.
Diploma in Clinical hypnotherapy (CEC)
John Roberts has had considerable expertise (over fifteen years) of dealing with men and women and their families with both ex-service organisations SSAFA and The Royal British Legion. He has worked with ex-service personnel and families who suffer from both personal and mental health problems.
As a C.B.T. based Counsellor, he has assisted clients with dealing with the loss of children, cases of sudden death both though military service, heart attacks, suicides and Road Traffic Accidents.
He has proven over many years to have a firm committment to Ex-service families and Children’s P.T.S.D issues and promoted the needs of the ex-service/service communities where ever they are located.
He has also worked on a number of RBL Special Needs Children’s Projects between Britain and Germany over several years.
He has constantly promoted and highlighted disadvantaged ex-service members and their Children's issues throughout the National Press and the Media.
He has written professional reports on mental health issues and also the financial assessments and the needs of clients.
As a Welfare Officer with both the Royal British Legion & Soldiers, Seamen and Airman Families Association for over 12 years of dealing with a wide range of clients and their families problems.
He had undertaken his professional training to be a CBT Counsellor to build up and complement his extended service as a Welfare Officer and to become more effective in the Counsellor/Welfare role.
John is very experienced in dealing with a wide and varied range of agencies both verbally and by written communication.
His Counselling remit was to cover personal tragedies from suicide to drug and alcohol abuse to the break up of personal relationships. He is at present in the process of establishing a UK wide support group for P.T.S.D. Sufferers and their carers which is based in Wolverhampton.
He has been actively involved with organising and setting up of support groups for P.T.S.D sufferers in Greater Manchester also Merseyside and Wigan. He has just finished writing a book entitled 'Trauma In the Family' about P.T.S.D. and its effects on Family members including children based on his own personal experiences of working with Traumatized parents, their children and their social networks.
John Roberts is recognized nationally as a expert in his particular field through having worked with many young offenders and their families over many years. He has also trained many parenting support groups across the UK - in particular 'Parents Like You' in Liverpool. He also has presented his training courses to 'Sure Starts' and 'Home Starts' across Great Britain. Additionally, he has also taught a National RelationshipCounselling Service
on P.T.S.D. and Domestic Violence in relationships.
The Family Trauma Centre
The Family Trauma Centre grew out of an idea John Roberts had whilst he lived in Germany, working with ex-servicemen with PTSD.John is a Decorated Veteran (GSM and 2 Bars) who was formerly with the Royal Air Force as an Air-Camera Fitter, being based in places as diverse as Aden, Singapore, The Maldives, Tripoli, and Germany. Aden being an active war zone at the time of John’s deployment. The Family Trauma Centre idea was brought over to England in its initial form when John was working for the Youth Justice Services in Wigan, England : and has continued into its current form; with the web-site being established in 2008. From his own direct personal experience as a sufferer of PTSD, John has long recognised that it is not just the sufferer of PTSD that experiences the manifestations of problems due to PTSD: but the whole family and social network.
John’s PTSD related issues eventually resulted in the breakdown of his own family – with secondary traumatization effects being imposed on his Wife and Children. The majority of the medical systems approach to PTSD is to focus on the individual. John’s approach, based on his own personal experiences, is to look at the whole family. This approach is further validated by John’s experiences whilst working for the "First Steps To Freedom" telephone Helpline: he found that the majority of phone callers were the FAMILY members of sufferers of PTSD – most of whom were desperate to talk to someone about their situation / problems.
This personal history inspired John to write his Acclaimed book "Trauma In The Family" : a book which offers understandable insights into the effects of PTSD on the Family Unit. The Family Trauma Centre is currently evolving and growing, with the support of other Veterans and Private Individuals with direct personal experience of PTSD.
To date the most notable contributors are :
Information
A FREE to access internet site has been developed to concentrate and disseminate information; We now have a professional web designer working for us to give the web-site a fresh injection of professionalism in design. The web-site will contain off-the-shelf medical definitions, contact links to other organisations, and most importantly – anecdotal testimonial stories from people who have experienced PTSD and whom have found their way through to recovery such that they feel they can write about their experiences.
Education
The Family Trauma Centre currently run five 1-day awareness courses targeted at specific user groups like health professionals, drug and alcohol groups, counsellors and therapists etc.
There is also a 30 hour Certificate level course that is accredited by NCFE (National College of Further Education) and approved by NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) and the BACP (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists)
A Diploma level course is currently being constructed by The Family Trauma Centre for delivery: this will be a 3 year course (part time) , accredited as above. There is a lot of interest from the Insurance / Personal Injury Industry in this course.
Regulation There are currently no agreed National Standards for training and therapy in the field of PTSD. This allows ANYONE to set-up a practice CLAIMING to be a counsellor / therapist in this field. This is an unacceptable situation leaving people open to being exploited / given inappropriate treatment.
The same situation exists in the United States and Western Europe (to the best of our current knowledge).
The Family Trauma Centre propose to establish a list of Registered Accredited Practitioners whom have sat the 2 year Diploma level course. This will be done in conjunction with the Register of Trauma Specialists (a body ran by Michael O’Sullivan)People with a minimum of the 30 hour certificate level can be registered as long as they have other (prior) accredited qualifications relevant to the field.
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Delivering this three-pronged approach is a Marathon and not a Sprint.!
The long term objective is to ensure that future services of a high reliability and quality are in place for delivery to future generations : and that they are accessible to all.
This is especially important given the high level of armed conflict and disasters that we are currently seeing in the World coupled with
the increasedsurvival rates due to modern medical technology / practices.
