Meet Deniece

Hello, I’m Deniece, founder of Orchid Room Therapy.

I’m a Level 4 qualified Person-Centred Counsellor and Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), offering counselling to adults and young people aged 12+ from my private practice in Great Wakering, as well as online.

For more than 20 years, my working life has centred around caring for and supporting people.

But my journey into counselling is also deeply personal.

I know what it feels like to be the person sitting in the counselling chair, wondering where to begin.

And I know how powerful it can be when somebody simply gives you the space to tell your story.

My journey into counselling

Around ten years ago, following the breakdown of a relationship and becoming a single mum, I reached a point in my own life when I sought counselling.

For the first time, I found a space where I felt safe enough to talk about childhood trauma I had carried silently for many years.

I felt heard.

I felt that somebody genuinely cared enough to listen.

And, importantly, I didn't feel judged.

Through counselling, I began to recognise how experiences from my childhood had influenced patterns in my adult life, my relationships, my emotions and the way I saw myself.

Things that I had struggled to understand about myself began to make sense.

That experience changed the direction of my life.

It sparked a genuine fascination with people, our stories and the experiences that shape the way we think, feel, behave and relate to others.

Ultimately, it led me to train as a counsellor myself.

I studied and trained for five years in Person-Centred Counselling, achieving my Level 4 qualification and becoming a Registered Member of the BACP.

Person-centred counselling resonated deeply with me because it reflected something I had experienced for myself: the power of being truly heard without judgement.

Why my own experience matters to the way I work

If someone had told me ten years ago that I would be living the life I am today, I genuinely would not have believed them.

Counselling didn't erase my past or change the things that had happened.

It helped me understand them.

I began recognising patterns, developing greater self-awareness and seeing myself and my experiences with more compassion.

I share a small part of my own story because I want you to know that when I talk about trusting the counselling process, it isn't something I only understand from a textbook.

I've experienced being the client too.

Of course, your story will be entirely different from mine, and I would never assume to know how another person feels simply because we may have experienced something similar.

But I do believe this:

The chapter you're living today doesn't have to be the whole of your story.

Sometimes change begins by having somewhere safe enough to finally talk.

More than 20 years of caring for others

Long before becoming a counsellor, I worked in roles centred around supporting people through different stages and circumstances of life.

My professional experience has included supporting adults and children with learning disabilities, young carers through Southend Carers, people living with dementia and their families, and individuals and families within end-of-life and palliative care at Havens Hospices.

Every role taught me something different.

But perhaps the greatest lesson was never to assume that we know somebody's story simply by looking at them.

Behind behaviour there can be experiences we cannot see.

Behind the person who appears incredibly strong may be someone who has spent years believing they have no choice but to cope.

And behind a diagnosis, difficulty or circumstance is always an individual.

I see the person first.

That belief is central to the counsellor I am today.

When grief became part of my own story

My understanding of caring, loss and grief later became deeply personal.

When my mum became seriously ill, I stepped away from work and cared for her until the end of her life.

I experienced caring from a completely different side.

The responsibility. The exhaustion. The uncertainty. The anticipatory grief. The love. And the strange mixture of wanting time to stand still while knowing that life around you continues moving.

Then came bereavement itself and learning how to live in a world that looked much the same, but felt completely different without her in it.

Around six months later, life brought me full circle when I found myself working professionally within end-of-life care at Havens Hospices.

I was supporting individuals and families through some of life's most vulnerable moments, but now I carried an understanding that was both professional and personal.

It deepened my compassion for grief and reinforced my belief that there is no correct way to grieve and no timetable for missing somebody you love.

Sometimes people don't need their grief fixed or hurried.

They need somewhere it is allowed to exist.

The counsellor I am today

My approach is rooted in the core principles of Person-Centred Counselling: empathy, authenticity and unconditional positive regard.

But to me, these are much more than therapeutic terms.

They describe how I believe another human being deserves to be met.

You may come to counselling carrying experiences you've never spoken about.

You may have made decisions you regret, developed ways of coping you don't understand, or spent years worrying about what somebody might think if they knew the whole story.

My role isn't to judge those parts of you.

It's to become curious with you about what sits underneath them.

I work from a trauma-informed perspective, recognising that experiences from our past can continue to influence our emotions, relationships, behaviours, sense of safety and beliefs about ourselves long after the experience itself has passed.

Together, we can begin to understand your story and the patterns within it, at a pace that feels right for you.

You don't need to edit yourself in my counselling room.

You can come as you are.

Caring for the whole person

Alongside my counselling and care background, wellbeing has been part of my professional journey for more than 20 years.

My first professional training was as a Level 3 Beauty Therapist, including Anatomy & Physiology, giving me an early understanding of nurturing care, relaxation and the importance of making time for ourselves.

During my time working within end-of-life care, I also trained as a Level 2 Reiki Practitioner.

Working alongside people at the end of their lives reinforced something very simple for me: we spend so much of our lives doing, caring, rushing and looking after other people that we can forget we need care too.

That understanding is why Orchid Room Therapy also offers a small range of Reiki and relaxation massage treatments for women.

These are separate from my counselling work and are offered as additional wellbeing treatments, providing space to slow down, rest and receive rather than continually give.

Counselling remains at the heart of my practice.

Qualifications & Professional Practice

My approach is shaped by life experience, but my counselling practice is grounded in professional training, ethical practice and appropriate therapeutic boundaries.

Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling – Person-Centred Approach
Five years of counselling study and training

Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
Membership Number: 00951390

Level 3 Beauty Therapy
Including Anatomy & Physiology

Level 2 Reiki Practitioner

I undertake regular counselling supervision and continued professional development, helping me to practise safely, ethically and reflectively.

Why I created Orchid Room Therapy

Orchid Room Therapy brings together the different chapters of my life.

My years of caring for others.

My own experience of counselling.

My professional training.

My understanding of trauma and grief.

My holistic background.

And everything those experiences have taught me about human connection.

I wanted to create a counselling space where you don't need to arrive with the right words or have everything figured out.

Somewhere you can take off the mask of “I'm fine.”

Somewhere you can talk about the things you've never known how to say.

Somewhere silence is okay, tears are welcome and laughter can exist alongside difficult conversations.

And somewhere you are seen as a person with a story, rather than a problem that needs solving.

Because sometimes the most powerful thing another human being can give us is the experience of being genuinely heard, understood and accepted.

That's the space I hope to offer you.

Deniece

Level 4 Person-Centred Counsellor
Registered Member of the BACP
Founder of Orchid Room Therapy
Great Wakering, Southend-on-Sea

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be.”
Carl Rogers