Carl Stonier, the owner of Personal Potential, has a PhD in psychology, awarded for his research into the effects of a counselling and guided imagery programme on the outcome of people with Ischaemic Heart Disease, together with a number of other counselling/psychotherapy qualifications. He has studied the use of guided imagery for people with cancer with Stephanie Simonton in the USA and also with Lawrence Le Shan, one of the worlds leading practitioners of the psycho-emotional approach to cancer treatment. In addition to the 'paper' qualifications, he has also got about 20,000 hours of clinical experience in counselling. He is an experienced supervisor of counsellors has been an approved supervisor for the counselling training courses at Bretton Hall College, Wakefield (part of Leeds University) since 1995. Other counsellors working with Personal Potential are qualified to at least Diploma level.
Carl Stonier also has a number of qualifications in nursing, has been an accredited member of The British Association of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, has been accredited by the American Psychological Association for using Guided Imagery with people with life threatening illness and is a member of the Royal College of Nursing, and the Association of Humanistic Psychology (GB) (adhering to the code of ethics of both organisations). He is also a former member of the New York Academy of Science.
Before establishing 'Personal Potential' in January 2000, he was a Specialist Consultant in Counselling at Pontefract General Infirmary, in West Yorkshire, UK, taking direct referrals from GP's, other consultants and members of staff and providing, through the Continuing Education and Development Department, training for hospital staff in counselling skills, stress management, assertiveness and anger/violence management. During the 6 years of tenure as head of counselling at Pontefract, he spent approximately 6000 hours in 1 to 1 therapy with clients and supervised the work of a number of qualified and trainee counsellors. He has lectured in counselling at Bretton Hall College, Wakefield, is on the register of approved supervisors for students undertaking counselling training at Bretton, and supervised the work of the counsellors at Hull and East Riding Relate for 9 years. He has worked with people with life threatening illnesses (especially cancer) for many years and is a member of the planning group of the National Conference of Cancer Self Help Groups with whom he has been involved for over 25 years. He facilitates workshops around the country on a number of topics including guided imagery, shamanic journey, healing and tai chi.