Timothy McMichael

Counselling & Therapy

Timothy McMichael offers a prompt, kind, professional and confidential service to individuals, to all kinds of couples, families and organisations.

Areas of particular interest and expertise for Timothy include:

• counselling for depression and anxiety
• CBT counselling
• grief, loss, suicide and bereavement
• coping with pain and cancers
• sex and sexuality including sex therapy for straight (heterosexual), bisexual and gay (homosexual) individuals and couples, help in coming out as a gay, lesbian, transgendered or intersexed individual
• relationship problems including trust, intimacy, affairs and love, and of course couple and relationship counselling
• transgender and intersex
• adoption issues
• conflict coaching

Family Mediation at the time or after Separation

Have you just separated from your partner?
Are you wondering what to do next?
At such a stressful time, what do you do about the house, the children, the assets, the debts?
How can you both move on with your lives when you can’t seem to have a civil conversation about the issues that need to be sorted out?

Each separation has its own unique problems. As a fully qualified and accredited family mediator with over 15 years experience, Timothy provides mediation to resolve family disputes, which include those regarding separation, children, property and finance. Mediation offers an alternative to dealing with disputes through Legal Representatives or the Family Court process. Meditation concentrates on resolving shared problems rather than emphasising entrenched and polarised positions, this reduces hostility and improves the chances of long term co-operation. ​

Timothy is a Ministry of Justice approved/accredited Provider for Family Dispute Resolution , which means he is able to offer the FDR service to parties who qualify for state funding as well as those who self fund, or a mixture of both.

Timothy also provides mediation for work place disputes, commercial organisations, NGO’s and other bodies.

Sex Therapy

Sexual and relationship therapy can be helpful for an individual or couple who feel their sexual difficulties are affecting their quality of life in an emotional, psychological or physical way. We all feel anxious when we’re having problems in our relationships or with our sex life. Being able to explore these kinds of feelings and attitudes in an environment where you won’t be judged in any way, shape or form, is an important part of the work of the sex therapy practitioner.

Sex Therapy gives support and education to people who have issues relating to:

• sex, sexuality, gender, and intimacy.
• differing levels of libido or sex drive
• sexual dysfunction such as problems with orgasms, erections, either partner experiencing pain during or after sex
• sexuality and/or sexual orientation including being gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, transsexual, transgendered or intersexed.
• sexual fetishism or paraphilias if they are problematic for you or your partner

Balint Groups

Timothy runs Balint groups for local GP’s, Allied Health Professionals, Family Mediators and Lawyers.

A Balint group is an experiential, small group educational activity in which, traditionally, practicing GPs meet regularly to discuss difficult or intriguing cases. The focus is on the psychological aspects of general practice, and particularly the emotional content of the doctor-patient relationship. Balint groups provide a supportive setting in which GPs can rediscover the human side of general practice, add a refreshing new dimension to their work and avoid burnout.

Today in the 21st Century the Balint group has evolved into a model of support and professional practice for health professionals from a wide range of disciplines, along with other professionals from many walks of life where there is an ongoing professional relationship, sometimes known as the ‘i thou’ relationship, between the giver/provider of a professional service and the consumer of such service.

Clinical and Workplace Supervision

Timothy is able to offer both clinical and workplace supervision to fully satisfy the Supervision requirements of NZAC, The New Zealand Law Society, Resolution Institute,  AMINZ and other professional bodies.

Timothy is qualified as a supervisor, and works collaboratively with supervisees to allow them the necessary time and space to reflect on their ethical and professional practice.

About Timothy

Timothy is a senior counsellor, mediator, supervisor, therapist and published author, with a quarter of a century’s experience in his field of work. He is widely trained in his chosen profession having studied in the UK, in California and in recent years in New Zealand. Timothy is fully insured, and abides by the Codes of Ethics of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors, of which he is a Full Member (MNZAC).

Timothy has also been facilitating experiential groups for over two decades. He first participated in experiential groups in 1991 with the Jesmond Centre for Humanistic Psychotherapy. He is a former member of the Centre for the Study of the Person in La Jolla, California, established in the 1970’s by the legendary Carl Rodgers, where he also undertook intensive training in group processes.