How are you… Really?
Counselling is a talking therapy.
It’s not like popping a pill and waiting for the headache to go away.
It’s more like learning to drink enough water.
Counselling helps us learn about the ways we feel, think and behave, both in our own private world, and in our relationships with others. It’s a powerful process that can enable us to live our lives more how we want.
What’s it like to work with me?
When we work together we will agree what we work on (a kind of verbal ‘therapeutic contract’)
so we know we are heading in the direction you want to go. We’ll meet at the same time each week,
and we’ll check we’re on target. Sometimes I may ask you to complete a quick standard questionnaire.
Everything you talk about is in confidence - for the details of that, see my Admin contract.
My admin contract is here - it covers how we work together.
How do we know we can work together?
Before we commit to anything we can have a quick call to discuss what you are looking for - usually this takes 10 - 20 minutes. In that call we can decide if we want to go further, and arrange a first ‘induction’ session.
I charge induction sessions at half price; they are the usual 50 minutes long and whilst there’s a bunch of questions I need to ask you it’s a space for you to tell me what’s going on for you, and for us to get to know each other a bit more.
At the end of the induction session we will commit to working together, or perhaps choose not to - the important thing is for us to both trust our judgement and do what feels right.
There may be a situation where I choose not to work with you - if we have a mutual friend, or some other connection that wasn’t immediately apparent it’s not a good idea to work together. There are also a few situations where I may say “I think you need to work with somebody who specialises in…” - it is my ethical duty to do so if I think you’d be better served by somebody else.
What Now?
Drop me a message - you don’t need to know exactly what you want, and I’ll respond soon.
Note that I don’t monitor the messages outside UK office hours, and I am often unable to respond immediately, but I will reply to you by the next working day, and more usually within a few hours.
Please remember that this is never an emergency contact - if you need urgent help contact the appropriate services - there are a few pointers on my Resources page.