Michelle Vickers is a registered Counsellor with a Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and a BSc (hons) in Therapeutic Counselling. She also has a Life Coach Qualification and is a member of the BACP.

In addition, she has a Level 4 Certificate in Counselling Children and a Child and Adolescent Diploma.

Michelle works within private practice with adults, children and young people but in addition she works with adults, children and young people at a local hospice who are pre- or post-bereavement or who have been given a terminal diagnosis.

Michelle considers her specialist areas to be Panic, Phobias and Anxiety Disorders, and Bereavement, although she works with all issues.

Her interest in counselling came through experiencing a difficult childhood and subsequently experiencing many adverse life events which she believes now enable her to support others with empathy and a wider perspective.

Michelle believes she is authentic, open and honest and she is not afraid to share her own experiences to support the wider understanding of others in their own work supporting their client base.

Personally, Michelle suffered an acute anxiety which became chronic, developing into anxiety disorders and eventually house-bound agoraphobia.

Her issues seemed to progressively get worse until she researched and developed her own understanding of what was happening to her which, in turn, enabled her to adopt a different approach rather than acting on a gut instinct to protect herself.

Somewhere inside her, Michelle found the belief and hope that this could be ok. She identified a gap in information or plain English answers that she believed would have helped her to understand how her body may respond to anxiety and what she was currently doing to make her symptoms worse rather than better.

This began her passion to share her experiences and findings with others in order to help them to facilitate their own recovery. This was through her website www.itsjustafeeling.co.uk

Michelle now also teaches her methods for supporting clients with anxiety disorders and panic symptoms using her Fear Monster ™ concept to other mental health professionals.

She found that current medical approaches aim to cure a symptom without looking or considering the root cause. Through her own suffering and professional work, Michelle has started to understand the importance of discovering who we are and linking mind and body to calm our anxiety over the longer term. Knowledge is power.

Michelle's teaching has evolved over the years with influence from her own experiences and that of her research and continuous work with herself and with others who are suffering these symptoms.

Michelle came to realise that dealing with the cycle of anxiety and longer-term reduction of fear in relation to the cycle was to learn about herself first and then tackle the anxiety cycle.

Today Michelle is well and trying to live as full a life as possible, spending time with family and friends and with a vested interest in sports for self-care.