Bio

My name is Mica May.

I have always been one of those people strangers chat to. I felt that a job where I could talk to people all day would suit me, but in those days, for an ordinary girl like me there was no such job, so I had several false starts.
In 1986 I began working as what is now called a Personal Assistant for a woman bedbound as a result of a progressive illness. During her onslaughts of rage, despair and loss I realised that I could cope with other people's strong emotions and shortly after her death I began training as a counsellor.
My first job as a counsellor was at a Rape Crisis Centre. In at the deep end, I began to feel I'd finally found my place in the world.
Next I worked for National Children's Homes, running a Helpline and Counselling Service for survivors of sexual abuse and their families, with responsibility for the North West.
This service closed (as is often the way in the voluntary sector), and NCH moved me to a Family Centre, I thought I'd hate working with children and families, but I loved it. There I began working closely with Social Services and started to learn about the "Looked After" system and it's affects on children and their families.
Next I moved to Family Service Units as a Play Therapist. I ran the Therapy for Children service, working with children between the ages of 3 and 15.

I loved working with children using play. It was possible to achieve so much, and avoided a lot of the verbal traps we adults create for ourselves.

I found though, that I was spending a lot of time supporting parents as well as their children. Because of this, I developed a Consultation Service for Parents. About half of the parents I worked with in this way were foster parents. My work with whole families at the family centre had helped me realise how much more productive therapy with children could be if parents (this included Birth parents, Foster Parents and Adoptive parents) received some support and guidance as well. I found that in a significant number of cases, work with parents could replace work with the children. It made so much sense, for parents who spend so much time with their children, to be empowered in their parenting by some therapeutic knowledge and positive parenting skills, than for the children to see a therapist for just one hour a week.
Many of the parents I encountered in these consultation sessions just needed someone impartial but with knowledge of their situation, to listen to them. Having this space meant they could often come up with their own solutions, but sometimes it also revealed that the parents, themselves felt overwhelmed and neglected, this meant they sometimes couldn't see how to fully meet the needs of their children. I found this was especially common among foster carers, who often couldn't discuss their fears with Social Workers because of their position.

A colleague and I created the idea of our own independent charity that would provide a truly holistic service, addressing the needs of whole families using therapeutic and complimentary therapies in combination. While my colleague started the charity, I did some agency work, a long placement in a Fostering and Adoption Unit usefully provided me with a statutory perspective.
When the new charity (Family And Child Therapies; FACT) began, I took up the post of Senior Therapist with responsibility for work with Children and Young People. I worked as a Play Therapist with Children, a Counsellor and Reiki Therapist with adults and young people and continued to provide support sessions to parents. I also supervised counsellors, play therapists and complimentary therapists.
I am now using all this experience in my independent practice concentrating on providing information and support in the form of Life Coaching, to enable Foster Parents to develop effective strategies for coping with their children's behaviour and for their own development.
I love my job. It feels good to be able to provide effective support to special families.
I live in a beautiful place I love, which is certainly enough until I find my dream house by the Atlantic, with my lover, two large dogs and a cat, and for extra fun I do Belly Dancing. My life is full of friends, laughter, dog hair and my inspiring clients.
In addition to my Effective Response practice, I work with parents going through separation helping them to ensure they continue to do the best for their children. I teach healing and visualisation and pass Reiki attunements.

Training

Over the years I have undertaken lots of training, including:

• Counselling
• Child Development
• Child Protection
• Play Therapy
• Transpersonal Therapy (including Therapeutic Sandplay)
• Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T.)
• Solution Focussed Therapy
• Psychodrama
• Life Design
• Visualisation
• Reiki