Counselling:

I am a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist who has been practicing for 30 years. Counselling offers a caring and understanding relationship in which you can explore any areas of personal concern, your feelings, thoughts and attitudes, in an atmosphere of safety, respect and acceptance. It provides an opportunity for people to work towards expanding the development of your own capacities and resources to live in a more meaningful and satisfying way.

Who is counselling for?

People of all ages, from all walks of life, go for counselling and bring a wide range of personal worries and concerns. Issues brought to counselling can include stress, anxiety, fears, depression, life-crisis, unhappiness with past influences, low self-esteem, identity, addictions, relationship difficulties, bereavement, emotional or sexual difficulties, confusion, a less defined sense of unhappiness with life, sexual abuse, sexuality, spirituality and faith issues, self-awareness and personal growth etc. The list is endless.

Confidentiality

What you say to me within the counselling session is confidential. Also, the fact that you are my client, I treat as confidential. I take this obligation very seriously and will not, without your explicit consent, pass on the information to anyone else.
 
There are four exceptions which I want you to know about:

• All my work is supervised. So, I may, on occasion, bring to my supervisor something we have talked about. This is to ensure that I am doing my best for you and that my own issues are not getting in the way of being with you.
• If I see a very serious and imminent danger to you, to me, or to a third party, I will break confidentiality to deal with this. However, I will endeavour to inform you first that I am doing this.
• A disclosure of an act of terrorism or child sexual abuse – where I see there is danger to children and where I am not satisfied that this danger is being dealt with – I will break confidentiality. Again, I will inform you first that I am taking this course of action.
• If a client makes a complaint against me on ethical grounds, I shall take it that our contract of confidentiality has been terminated.

About my approach

My approach is primarily Person-Centred, originating from the work of Carl Rogers. I am also trained in other approaches and will offer them if needed. The emphasis of the work is on the uniqueness of the individual, self-determination, personal power, self-responsibility and human choice. I have no intention of offering you advice or trying to impose any of my opinions or views on you. I believe that each of us has the capacity to understand and to resolve our own difficulties, to grow and to make the changes we desire in our lives. My aim is to offer you a secure place where you can decide the use of time, what to bring up and how much to explore. I will facilitate that process of exploration with you towards developing more meaningful ways of being.
 
During the period that you are my client, I undertake to give you the best attention I am capable of, to consult always your best interests, not to exploit you in any way and to use for your benefit the skills and knowledge that I possess.
 
Because I do not view therapy as a way of life, I generally work with someone for a period of five sessions followed by a review session. This affords you the opportunity to consider if you are getting what you want from the investment you are making in this time together. In the review we explore together what is helping you, what is not helping you and discuss future issues. Counselling requires commitment, time and effort by both counsellor and client. The length of time varies as different people experience their worries and difficulties in quite different ways. It can be a brief interaction or can continue for longer. There are vast differences between clients in what they want and what they get out of therapy.

The commitment that I require of you is that you are punctual for sessions, that you inform me of any cancellation in advance of the session and that you work in our time together. I will do the same for you.

The sessions are normally 60 minutes in duration and are usually held on a weekly basis.
 
If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to bring them to the session and I will do my best to answer them.
 
My fees are £50.00 per 60 minute session. This is made payable at the end of each session by either cash or cheque.

Counselling is only offered face-to-face at my practice in Crewe, Cheshire.