Benjamin Hargrave
About the Therapist
My name is Benjamin, I describe myself interchangeably as queer and gender fluid. I am White British but have lived and been connected with other places in the world. I now live between the UK and Poland. I am HIV positive and have worked supporting people with this diagnosis in various capacities in the past. I am very active in working on racial equity and social justice in my work, my personal life and particularly in my broader roles within therapy communities and activism.
I made my way into becoming a therapist through working with children and families in youth work, education, then social work before specialising in working with developmental trauma and attachment insecurity, particularly in the field of adoption. This context, in addition to my lived experience, has given me a strong understanding of living with the effects of developmental, complex and simple trauma, including living with a suppressed identity, loss and insecure attachment.
My aim is to support people to understand what lies beneath the symptoms they are struggling with. I try to help them make sense of their feelings and their narrative in a way which builds an integrated story of their lives, allowing them to connect with the full range of their experiences safely. This can help people to build joy, freedom, connection and feelings of increased security into their lives.
- Gay
- Queer
I am a certified EFT Tapping Practitioner, accredited by EFT International. My supervisor is Ashley Meyer. Please see this link to my page on the EFT International Website.
https://eftinternational.org/eft-practitioner/benjaminhargrave/
I am a Certified DDP (Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy) Practitioner, becoming certified as a DDP Consultant. I am supervised by Dr. Sarah Kildea with my second consultant being Dr. Kim Golding.
You can find out more about DDP and the link to my profile on the DDP Website here.
https://ddpnetwork.org/about-ddp/dyadic-developmental-psychotherapy/
https://ddpnetwork.org/professionals/find-a-practitioner-or-therapist/ben-hargrave/
I am a Systemic Practitioner, having completed the Foundation and Intermediate Post Graduate Certificates in Systemic Family Therapy at the Institute of Family Therapy.
https://ift.org.uk/
I am also a registered Social Worker with Social Work England having completed my masters in Social Work at Middlesex University.
https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/umbraco/surface/searchregister/socialworker/SW112117
I also have a background in art and continue to make work as part of my life practice.
I graduated with a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University in 2007.
Award | Awarding body | Year of award |
---|---|---|
EFT Practitioner | EFT International | 2023 |
DDP Practitioner | DDPI | 2019 |
Systemic Practitioner | IFT | 2014 |
MA in Social Work | Middlesex University | 2016 |
In working with the queer community, I offer online, EFT Tapping Therapy. I will also be offering an English speaking, face-to-face service in Warsaw, Poland starting in January 2024.
EFT Tapping, which stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, was developed from acupuncture and supports the body to release emotional blockages from its system. This is naturally informed by my other training and experience.
EFT can feel like a strange discipline. It is used as a tool for supporting people to relieve trauma symptoms - literally attempting to offer emotional freedom from difficulties which link to the past. EFT is also commonly used to work with phobias, identity or core issues, pain and symptom relief, and performance in sport, business or personal goals such as weight loss.
The process of EFT starts with exploring a difficulty and checking how intense it feels, then the practitioner supports the person receiving therapy to tap on their hands, face and upper body in specific places while repeating some phrases and exploring themes. It is possible to adapt this process for people who may not be able to tap on themselves.
People have lots of different experiences of EFT which can include making unusual connections between themes or memories, feeling physical sensations, strong emotions, a feeling of release, feeling energised or sleepy. Some people feel more intensity and some less. The practitioner will always guide you through the process and check in with you as you go along to see how you are doing. Ultimately the experience should help to relieve some of the difficulties as well as support you to understand what is going on more deeply.
I have trained and read broadly in in various areas related to therapy including gender and sexuality identities, trauma, attachment, childhood abuse and neglect, neurobiology, and more.
- Family Therapy
- Other
- Systemic
- Gay
- Neurodivergent
- Non-binary | Genderqueer
- Queer
- Questioning
- Trans
- One to one
- Two people
- Three or more people
- No adaptation
- Adults
- Seniors (60+)
- Young adults (16-24)
- Online
I charge £90 per session. Sessions last between 1 hour and 1 hour 20 minutes. I use a flexible time frame in order to ensure that we can finish in a way which supports you feel safe and regulated at the end of the session.
I recommend the first session is 2 hours in order to give more time to complete the initial introductions and agreements and this will be charged at £120.
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