My interest in counselling began after the birth of Gareth in 1970 when I became involved with the National Childbirth Trust and, following the arrival of Wendy-Jayne in 1972, I undertook some in-house training to enable me to support breastfeeding mothers.

A few years later I became a volunteer with the Samaritans and continued this until the early 80s when I was given the opportunity of working with young people in a Tertiary College. At this point I undertook further training and gained Certificates and Diplomas in Counselling and also in Welfare Studies via the Institute of Welfare Workers.

As Gareth and Wendy-Jayne progressed through their education I decided to accompany them on their journey and enrolled at the University of Warwick as a part time student before graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Social Studies. I continued with part time education and my part time work at the college gradually increased to full time counselling of students and staff. This made it essential that I gained accreditation with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and registration with the United Kingdom Register of Counsellors. My thirst for study continued and I gained Diplomas in Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Indian Head Massage and Anatomy and Physiology with the intention of using these, together with my counselling qualifications, to help those people suffering from the pressures of every day life. Still employed full time at the college I was persuaded to take on a teaching role in addition to remaining as Senior Counsellor.

The one to one counselling became half time and the lecturing and course leader for counselling courses occupied the other half of the week. As anyone in education will know this mean working for at least 60 hours term time weeks and twenty hour plus at other times.

During this time I met Robert! My free time, or study time, suffered as we worked on building our relationship. Easter 2001 I visited Greece for the first time with Robert and, as this was my first flight since June 1970 it was quite an experience! We married in June 2002 and Robert continued to spend some time in Greece and some with me in England until I decided to retire from the college at the end of August 2005. The next major event, or stressor, was the decision to sell my home in Birmingham and move to a new area. After much searching we came across Measham on the Staffordshire / Derbyshire / Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire borders and moved to our new home in May 2006.

We are now working hard to become part of the community in both Measham and Methoni. I would like to use my counselling/therapy skills working on a time-limited basis with individuals, couples or small groups. Please click on the appropriate area at the side of this page for more information.

Mary Chidlow Doling 0779 555 2030 or