is our accountant and the voice of wisdom. He pops in to counsel us every so often! As an independent accountant he also looks after the accounts for several of the counsellors here – if you would be interested in contacting him please do so through the office.
Birmingham Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre started it’s life 20 years ago as Birmingham Counselling Centre, developing a reputation for counselling training.
Bob Smith and Deb Williams started the Centre after Bob’s experiences of running counselling training in a college of FE & HE led him to believe that counselling training would benefit from being offered in a purpose-built building, with appropriate boundaries, where it could model what the training was preaching.
The Centre began in a large old house in Edgbaston (hence the ‘Birmingham’) offering training and counselling services. Fortunate enough to grow, we needed to move – so in 1997 it transferred to it’s present base in Pottery Road – first at 131 and then in 2002 adding on the building at 127. We specifically wanted to move to a base within a local community as part of our aim to bring counselling into the mainstream. Our tutors were mostly experienced psychotherapists and often our qualified counsellors were going on to train as psychotherapists while working at the Centre so along the way it felt appropriate to add ‘psychotherapy’ to our name.
Although independently run, the Centre’s philosophy has always been to offer counselling support to as many as possible regardless of ability to pay and so has always provided some low cost counselling. We have also championed the idea of having therapists of different orientations working side by side to share and learn from each other.
During its journey, the Centre became well known nationally for its high quality counselling training. Although that programme has now ended, we continue to maintain our national profile with our work for large organisations across the UK. We also offer a wide range of support to local and regional organisations, commercial, voluntary or statutory.
We have an experienced & friendly team of Counsellors and Psychotherapists who will be happy to help you.
We are based on the borders of Bearwood and Oldbury, a few miles outside Birmingham City Centre, in a quiet residential area, with good public transport links and plenty of free parking.
Your counsellor will tell you which building they work from. There is an easily accessible waiting room at 127 Pottery Road if you are early for your appointment at either building.
We are very accessible to the following areas: Bearwood, Harborne, Oldbury, Edgbaston, Quinton, Smethwick, West Bromwich & Ladywood.
People First at Birmingham Counselling Centre
Birmingham Counselling &
: you will see a green door to the right of the building with a small BCPC sign above. Just inside this door you will see an intercom buzzer on the wall on the left. Press the buzzer at the time of your appointment and your counsellor will reply and use the intercom to open the door, which is on the left down the passageway.
where your counsellor will come to meet you.
. Buses start from Colmore Row, Birmingham city centre to Birmingham Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre where they all stop in Pottery Road, outside the Nisa Warley Supermarket. BCPC is a short walk from here up Pottery Road. The buses run approximately every 10 minutes.
