Stella Compton - Counsellor, Music Therapist, Cognitive Analytic Therapist - Home Page
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Stella Compton Biography

About Me

I studied at the City of Leeds College of music and at the Royal Academy of Music. As a founder member of the Avant Garde Group “Lontano” I was a key player in commissioning and performing radical new music that reflected the social, cultural and political issues of the time. I then became one of the few successful female session musicians of the 1980’s. As technology took over from live music in the recording scene, I focused on a serious musical career playing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra including their Promenade Concerts; frequent runs as well as short notice appearances with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and touring as the Principal Oboist with the renowned Rambert Dance Company. I then studied in depth authentic orchestral style from the turn of the 20th century and joined the newly formed New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, with whom I still play. In 1993 I was awarded scholarships to train as a music therapist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Five years later this led to my appointment as Head of Arts Therapies at one of the UK’s National High Secure Hospitals. Since then I have led clinical Arts Therapies service development in forensic treatment contributing to treatment guidelines for the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.

I have presented developments in music therapy at national and international conferences on four continents. Having gained an MSc in mental health studies and then accreditation as a cognitive analytic practitioner at Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital medical school, I have developed a clinical-based NHS doctoral research project through King’s College London and the Institute of Psychiatry.  I engage in weekly supervision. I regularly attend and present at conferences and have published several clinical papers

With selected colleagues I have established a bespoke private psychotherapy service in North London. This provides a comprehensive range of treatment with an emphasis on psychological, and holistic aspects of healthcare. We can provide the most suitable forms of treatment for each individual, covering a whole range of common problems that are often encountered by professionals and performers in all branches of business and the arts.

Recent CPD trainings

MY APPROACH

Your therapy session is time for you to share what you feel safe enough to confide. Sometimes when thinking about starting therapy we can feel uncertain or curious about whether the person we might choose is both knowledgeable and experienced enough to be able to understand and help with our issues. The therapist’s life is not the subject of your therapy. You are paying a fee in order to get to grips with your own specific issues. Yet you might need reassurance that this person is robust, astute, has integrity and that none of the personal circumstances brought to therapy are either insurmountable or insignificant. I have worked as a therapist with a very wide range of clients from those suffering with eating disorders, people in gay relationships, others following major bereavement, trauma,  physical and sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment, job loss, mothers dealing with children with special needs as well as with offenders in secure treatment settings. Here is an outline of my life experience.  More recently I have undertaken training in couples therapy in meeting their partners’ needs. From my earliest childhood I was taught to live life with a non-discriminatory philosophy of valuing difference. My recent work has been recognised in the NHS as notable for in-depth understanding and focus on the cultural and creative therapeutic needs of ethnic and other minority groups.