About me
Sophie Waterhouse
MA, MBACP (Accredited) · Humanistic Psychotherapist
Background
I was born and grew up in London. I studied philosophy and history at university, focusing on French and African history. I then completed a postgraduate training in film production before moving to live in Greece in my late twenties. I spent five years in Greece followed by eight years in America writing, doing further training and working. I returned to live in the UK in 2006 and now live in Hastings.
Before becoming a psychotherapist I worked in film in Los Angeles. A continuing theme in all my activities has been an interest in creativity. I have been on a creative path myself in one way or another for more than thirty years. My current creative activities revolve around psychotherapy, writing fiction and poetry, and experimenting with visual art.
Training
I have a Masters in Counselling Psychology with Expressive Arts Therapy — a three-year, full-time course providing over 2,000 hours of clinical training — graduating in 2001. I am British but trained in the United States at the California Institute of Integral Studies, one of the few institutes in the world that offers a counselling psychology training that includes expressive arts. CIIS is an accredited institute and its psychology training programmes fulfil the rigorous academic requirements of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and state licensing laws for psychotherapy. I completed my clinical practicum at Berkeley Creative Living Center, a drop-in day care centre for the chronically mentally ill in Berkeley, California.
From 2007 I continued my training, supervision and personal work through Spectrum Therapy in north London, a United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) member organisation and a centre founded in 1976 dedicated to humanistic psychotherapy. I was a practitioner at Spectrum from 2013 to 2020. I also engage in continuing professional development focused on expressive arts, neuroscience, transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology with CIIS and other organisations and resources.
Professional affiliations
I am accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and am on the BACP Register. I am also a professional member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA). I am bound by the codes of ethics of BACP.
I have Enhanced DBS certification.
If you would like to book an initial session, or have a question first, please get in touch.