FAQs

Perhaps it is helpful to start with what counselling is not. It is not about my giving you advice or making decisions for you. However, it is about my supporting you to look at feelings, emotions, patterns of thinking and behaviour and supporting you to find alternative options and coping strategies. You are the expert in your own life. You might talk about what is concerning you in the here and now, or look back at relationships, childhood or other events and experiences.

The things you say in your session are confidential. My work, like that of every counsellor, is overseen by a qualified and experienced supervisor who adheres to the same ethical standards as I do. I will not discuss you or anything you tell me with anyone else unless required by law, or I have serious concerns about your safety or the safety of another person. Where possible, I would share my concern with you before speaking to another professional.

I will keep brief anonymised factual notes and store them in keeping with the Data Protection Act (2018). Your contact details will be stored separately and securely. Your records are kept securely for the period that we have agreed to work together and securely destroyed after six years.

Counselling often involves talking about painful experiences so there may be times when you feel worse for a while. Our sessions may be tiring. It is rarely a quick fix, but it is amazing how powerful even a few sessions can be.

This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.
(Rogers, 1961:186)

No issue or concern is too small or too big to bring to counselling and there is no right or wrong way to be or to speak in counselling. Some things may feel very difficult to speak about or you tell yourself it’s not something you can say out loud. However, the more you are able to share or ‘go past your edges’ (Davies, hyperlink here) in the safety of our counselling sessions, the more we can work with your feelings and emotions and look at your coping mechanisms and whether they serve you appropriately.

There is no ‘homework’ but sometimes we might agree that you will try out some ideas we have discussed during a session such as writing down your thoughts, memories or dreams. Having said this, we only meet for 50 minutes a week so most of your growth and understanding will occur as you go about your daily life.

It is very helpful to notice your reactions in our sessions and to share these feelings and emotions as freely as you can. I will often ask you, ‘what are you feeling right now’ and these patterns of feelings might tell us a lot about how you are in your day-to-day life. I might also ask you: ‘where in your body do you feel that emotion’ such as anxiety, fear or anger. We can work together to ease that physical distress. I will reflect back what I am noticing.

It is important to be honest if our sessions are not right for you and you would perhaps rather work with a different counsellor or service. I welcome your feedback and will not be offended.

Just as the start of our work is important as well as how we progress together, so is our ending. You will mostly likely know when it is time to end, and this could come at any point. Hopefully our ending will be planned, and you will have as much say in the process as possible. A good ending can be very beneficial especially if endings in the past have been difficult.