The NHS defines counselling as “A talking therapy that involves a trained therapist listening to you and helping you find ways to deal with emotional issues” .

The Process

The first stage of your journey would involve a 15 minute free consultation where we would discuss your situation. This will help you to decide if you would like to proceed and if so we can arrange the first session. At this stage, we would also be assessing if your needs would be best met by another organisation.

The first session

The first session would involve:

∙A warm welcome including introductions
∙Confidentiality reassurance
∙Gaining an understanding of your reasons for seeking support
∙Your expectations
∙What can be expected moving forward

The following sessions we would work together allowing you to explore your feelings, thoughts and behaviours, to help you develop the coping strategies required to move forward.

All counsellors should be a member of a professional body that has a code of ethics and requires the counsellor to undertake continuous professional development and supervision. A practising counsellor would be a member of either the British Association of Counselling Professionals or The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society.

The number of sessions required would depend on the complexity of your issues and your expectations. It is unusual for the total number of sessions to be less than six, more may be required if it involves dealing with highly emotive issues and long standing patterns of behaviour. At the end of the first session we should be able to give you an indication of the approximate sessions required.

Each session will last for 50-minutes

We understand the importance of maintaining confidentiality regarding your personal details and the information you share with us. As professional counsellors we agree to maintain confidentiality, with the exception of
the following disclosures:

∙An intention to seriously harm yourself and others.
∙Any involvement from yourself, or someone you know, in the serious crimes of money laundering through drug trafficking, or terrorism.
∙Information suggesting a child is being abused or is at risk from being abused.

In the event that any of the above disclosures are made, we would support you to share this information to an appropriate person yourself.

Please note that:

∙Unless due to an emergency 24 hours notice is required for cancellation of a counselling session. In the event that this does not take place further sessions will require a £20 deposit.

∙Out of courtesy for the next client should you arrive late we would not be able to overrun the scheduled finish time.

The cost for each session is £45. We do offer concessions, please feel free to ask.

Information relating to our terms and conditions including confidentiality, data protection and GDPR forms part of our counselling contract. The counselling contract is discussed at the beginning of the first session and signed by both the client and counsellor. Should you have any specific questions relating to the above please feel free to contact us.