Information

Sessions take place at my home address in Debenham, located in the heart of rural Suffolk. I provide my full address when arranging sessions.

The counselling room itself is a private space used solely for my work with clients. I make every effort to ensure it is a comfortable and relaxed space allowing you to make the most of your sessions.

Free initial session for all new clients

Each weekly session  |  £50

Session fees can be paid for weekly by cash or via BACS transfer, or monthly via BACS transfer, depending on your needs. Fees are not charged in advance.

Please note that work I undertake with clients at a counselling centre may incur different a fee and may not include a free initial session.

Beginning Therapy

Deciding you want counselling is a first step, but I understand that looking for a professional to talk to and contacting them can be difficult for some. There are different forms of talking therapies available and a problem many face is making sense of what therapy would best suit them. Additionally, feeling uncomfortable, or a bit nervous or simply not knowing where to start when describing things to a professional is not uncommon.

For this reason, I offer initial sessions free of charge and there is no obligation to continue counselling afterwards should you decide not to. They offer you the opportunity to ask questions about the counselling process and many find them helpful to get used to speaking about themselves.

Initial sessions also offer me an opportunity to assess whether my services are suitable for you. Although this rarely is the case, if I feel you would be better served by speaking to someone other than myself, I will discuss this with you. This starting phase may take longer than the initial session, so I ask my clients to be mindful of what they are seeking and allow themselves to settle into therapy in their own time.

When contacting me to arrange an initial session you do not need to explain or describe anything you do not want to over the phone or in an email. You are welcome to contact me on behalf of someone else, but please be aware that for ethical reasons I will carefully consider whether or not to meet with a prospective client who has not contacted me themselves.

Maintaining Therapy

Much like going to the gym, following a diet or recovering from an illness or injury, the therapy you receive from your counselling sessions with me is a process. We would spend time on the present issues you are facing and begin to understand them by exploring your thoughts and feelings around them. This will involve reflecting on the past experiences you have had, perhaps going right back to earlier experiences that have had an impact on your current situation. From there we identify together ways for you to gradually improve your situation as best as you are able by better understanding why you might be struggling in deeper and perhaps more hidden ways. I always advocate that we take the proper amount of time to explore your difficulties so that you may meaningfully process things and more effectively find the solutions that would work best for you. It is never my place to offer my own advice or coach my clients in any way. Your sessions are solely about you.

We go at your pace at all times and recognise the pitfalls found in quick and simple fixes to complex problems. You might simply need a space to speak and be listened to. The talking very much is the doing when it comes to counselling and it may be a case of allowing yourself to sit with the difficult feelings so that they may more meaningfully be resolved at their core. It is not always an easy or pleasant task to work through the problems you are facing, but using your sessions effectively is a skill that the counselling itself aims to improve over time.

I work frequently with all sorts of different people and their different experiences. Some use therapy for a few months and others for a number of years, depending on the problems they are seeking to resolve.

Ending Therapy

As much as it is about allowing yourself the time and space to talk through things, good therapy takes place when working towards an end point, even if that end point is not fully known at times. While continuing for as long as any individual client wants to have their sessions, We will be working towards a time when you would feel ready to bring your sessions to a close.

Just as your therapy sessions begin when you decide, so too is the case that you decide when to end them. When you feel ready, we can discuss the ending you would like to experience and over what time scale we would draw things to a close. We arrange a date for your final sessions and work towards it. Like anything else, we can talk about it and I will listen to what you are bringing to the finalising sessions and what ending therapy is like for you.

The door is never fully closed. Some take indefinite breaks in their therapy to assess what they have discussed, knowing they can return if and when they wish to work together again. Some end therapy and find they can move forwards without it any longer. All of this is down to each individual client and returning to therapy is always a personal choice.

Once your therapy is concluded it is my hope you take from your sessions the experience of having prioritised yourself enough to have worked through what is brought to your sessions. For myself, experiencing these positive shifts in their mental well-being alongside my clients is an enormously fulfilling and motivating aspect of my work and why I desire to do this for a living.

Testimonials

These are some of the things my clients have said to me about our work together.

Online Reviews

For reviews left by some of my clients please see my business listing on Google.

If you are a client and would like to leave a review so that other's may more easily find my services, please click here or on the link below.