Counselling provides a safe and confidential space for people to talk to a trained professional about their concerns, without being judged or being told what to do. Usually people come to counselling because something isn't right. Some might bring clear goals to counselling, and need some support in putting things in place to achieve them. Some may not know what they want or where to start, and that's ok. A counsellor will help you explore your thoughts, feelings and behaviours so you can develop a better understanding of yourself and those around you.
Counselling can help with specific issues. Some of my work with clients has focused on depression, anxiety, relationships, understanding childhood experiences, understanding and working through traumatic experiences, loss, low self-esteem, anger, stress, and mental health difficulties.
A counsellor won't offer their opinion, advice or prescribe medication. Their role is to help you find your own solutions, whether that’s making changes to suit your life or finding better ways of coping with your situation. You can read more on the Counselling Directory.
Following a chat over the phone and agreeing a time and date to meet (either online, over the phone or in person), our first session will be about agreeing how we'll work together. We'll go through the counselling contract (which I'll send in advance, so you can read through at your own pace) and work together to create a therapeutic agreement, which we can revisit at any time. In this session we'll go through how confidentiality works in counselling, session times and expectations, the cancellation policy, as well as personal contact details and communication in between sessions.
We'll also go through your goals and hopes for therapy and start to explore what's brought you to counselling, at your pace. You can ask as many questions as you need to, to make sure you fully understand what counselling offers and how it could help you.
If your first session is online, I'll send an email ahead of the session with a link to our first session on Microsoft Teams. In addition to the counselling contract and therapeutic agreement, we'll go through how we'll work online, what happens if we lose internet connection and keeping you safe online.
My intention is to create a safe environment where you can talk about anything you need to. I will listen to you, and try to understand you and your life, and what you'd like to change. We can talk through the topics you bring to sessions, and sometimes we might work creatively on topics that might be harder to talk about. It's about finding an approach that works for you.
It's my role to maintain safe boundaries, but it's up to you to decide what we focus on. Counselling can be both supportive and challenging - change can be difficult, but my aim is for us to have a relationship where you can challenge yourself safely, without being judged, so you can find the best outcome for you.
There's no "one size fits all" way of working and we'll regularly review how things are going, and make any changes to our agreement so you can get the most out of our sessions. My commitment as a counsellor is to put you first, and if either of us feel that you might benefit from a different counsellor or another helping service, it's important we talk about this and I'll signpost you to help you find what you need. Take a look at the Useful Links page for an idea on the different agencies out there that can support varied needs.
That depends on you and your needs, and it's not something we have to decide right away. We'll chat through how many sessions you think you need in the first session and we'll continue to agree this throughout the work. Some people only need a few sessions, focusing on a specific issue, and some people need more time to work through things. If I think you might benefit from a different helping service, or if I don't feel I can help, I'll let you know so you don't waste your time and money.
Sometimes things come up that are unexpected or unavoidable which may mean you'll need to cancel a session. If this happens, you'll need to let me know by text as soon as you can. I can be flexible and will try to rearrange a session for the same week. Any sessions cancelled within 24 hours and can't be rearranged for the same week will be charged at the full rate.
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