Frequently Asked Questions

Therapy gives you space to understand yourself better, and to explore patterns in your relationships. It can foster greater self-acceptance, curiosity, help to increase self-awareness and thereby bring more choice and greater freedom in how you live. I work in a relational, compassionate and supportively challenging way, providing a space where you can be heard, understood and empowered to find your own way forward.

I work with people facing a wide range of difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, anger, trauma, bereavement and loss, low self-esteem, identity struggles, addiction, relationship problems, issues around sexuality, work or study challenges, procrastination and the emotional impact of physical illness.

Therapy brings a lot of benefits, here is a list of just a few of the main ones.

• Ease anxiety, stress and low mood
• Build confidence and self-esteem
• More effective communication
• Healthier coping strategies
• Stronger relationships
• Process trauma, grief and major life events
• Feel less alone and more supported
• Explore your beliefs, values and world-view
• Enhanced creativity and problem-solving
• More able to direct your own life

People come to therapy for all sorts of reasons. It’s worth remembering that an event or set of circumstances that may not trouble one person, can be traumatising to another. We’re all different. During therapy I encourage clients to talk about what’s causing them pain or problems, however important or trivial it seems. 

There is no pre-determined fixed amount of time to do therapy. Some clients find they get what they need from only a few sessions, whilst others find they want to continue to explore and grow through therapy for months or years. You are free to stop therapy whenever you wish to do so, and continued therapy is through mutual agreement.

I work with people from many different kinds of backgrounds and with all ages from 16 onwards.

Yes. I’ve experience of working with clients living abroad, and with people of different nationalities. My indemnity insurance covers this work.

I work weekdays and some weekday evenings. You can see my live availability on the booking page.

Yes.

Yes there is a dedicated carpark on the site, as well as street parking nearby.

Yes, yes there is ramp access to the building and a lift to the first floor.

This is down to individual need, preference and circumstances. In my experience once a week tends to work well. Weekly sessions tend to be frequent enough for a sense of continuity and depth of work, whilst also allowing enough space between sessions for a client to process what is explored within the sessions.

The first session involves what is often referred to as ‘contracting’. This means I’ll briefly set out the limits of confidentiality and answer any questions you have about it. The first session would focus on what brings you to therapy, and whether or not you would like to set two or three broad goals for your therapy. Some clients prefer not to have any clearly defined goals, and that’s fine too. If you’ve had therapy before, it can be helpful for me to know a little bit about your experience of it and how you found it. Some clients have a very clear idea from the outset why have come to therapy, and what they want to get out of it. Other clients are more uncertain, in which case a more explorative conversation around this can help.

Cancellations should be made with at least 24 hours notice, otherwise the missed session may be payable in full. Occasionally last minute cancellations due to emergencies and illness are unavoidable for both clients and therapists. Where possible I’ll reschedule the session for the same week.

I am not qualified to diagnose mental health conditions, developmental disorders, or learning disabilities. I can and do work with people who are diagnosed, as well as people who have some of the symptomology of diagnostic conditions, but have not been diagnosed or who do not meet the threshold for diagnosis. I do not work in a diagnostic way, but I do have some knowledge of theories and research on the causes of various conditions (such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, borderline personality disorder) and how I can, as a person-centred therapist, work with clients with diagnosed conditions. I believe that a person’s symptoms or difficulties are meaningful responses and adaptations to their experience of their present and/ or past social environment.

You can talk about anything within therapy, no topic or concerns are off limits. It is of course not possible to share everything that passes through your mind, or to share everything that you’ve done in your life or during your week. Time simply doesn’t allow that. It’s also okay if there are things that you don’t want to share. Sometimes it may be important to hold on to things until you feel comfortable-enough sharing it. It can take time to build trust.

Generally, everything the client says in a session is confidential. There are rare exceptions to this if I have reason to believe that the client or someone else is at serious risk of harm. I do have monthly supervision with a qualified clinical supervisor to help ensure that I’m working with clients in the best possible way. I do not share details that would make a client identifiable, and the supervisor is bound by the same code of ethics regarding confidentiality. 

No, you just need to bring yourself, and share what occurs to you in the moment, even if this means that you share that you don’t feel like sharing! Sometimes clients come to sessions with a clear idea what they want to talk about. That’s fine too. It’s about what works for you as an individual at any particular time.

That is okay. Both difference and similarity are welcome. Therapists tend to work hard to minimise the impact of their peronsal beliefs in the therapeutic space. I provide a non-judgemental space, and see my role as primarily to faciliate client reflection about themselves. It’s a complex issue though, as I also aim to be present as a ‘real’ person, rather than trying to be just some kind of ‘blank screen’. My personal identity and beliefs tend not very often to come explicitly into the foreground in therapy. But they are inevitably present at some level, and it’s certainly okay for a client to ask me questions about my beliefs and identity if they wish to do so. It is also, of course, okay not to do so. It is occasionally helpful to acknowledge and explore how perceived or actual differences between the client and therapist may be impacting the therapeutic work. This can helpfully illuminate how difference influences the client’s relationships in their everyday life, and give the client more choice about how they navigate difference between themselves and others.

There is no consensus within the field regarding the distinction between counselling and psychotherapy, and I use the terms interchangeably. There is no consistent difference between what practitioners who call themselves counsellors do, and what practitioners who call themselves psychotherapists do.

Psychotherapy trainings are often longer than counselling trainings, but this is not always the case.

My main training course in Person-Centred Therapy, like most courses and trainings that enable a therapist to join one of the main professional associations, followed the tripartite training model: (i) doing personal therapy (i,e. the therapist as a client working with a qualified therapist), (ii) learning and critical engagement with theory, and (iii) clinical practice (working as a trainee therapist with clients). Not all therapy courses make their students eligible for professional association membership.

It’s widely thought within the field that it is best to work with a therapist who themselves have had significant levels of personal therapy. Prior, during and after my training I’ve had extensive personal therapy.  This first-hand experience of being a client enhances my practice as a therapist. It helps to ensure that my personal ‘stuff’ doesn’t disrupt my work as a therapist. It also enhances my empathy for my clients and what they bring.

In terms of theory, I engaged extensively with relevant theory within my MA in Cultural & Critical Theory, and extensively with clinical theory in my MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice. My PhD, in terms of my approach and its content, could have been done in a counselling or psychoanalytic university department. I conducted it within a department of politics (at Essex University) as it has a well established research tradition that is informed by discourse analytic and psychoanalytic ideas.

Since qualifying I have also done a lot of reading and workshops, focussed on particular client issues and therapeutic approaches. I am continuously learning and developing my craft as a therapist. This includes learning through practice.

Whilst training and since qualifying I have worked with over 200 clients. Length of working with individual clients has ranged from a single session to weekly sessions for over three years.

The effectiveness of person-centred and other humanistic therapies has been demonstrated through empirical research studies.

However, I subscribe to the view that, overall, the body of research evidence on the effectiveness of therapy (I looked at the literature on this as part of my PhD research) suggests that all types of therapy are generally very similar in their effectiveness. It is sensible therefore to listen to your own intuition and preferences when choosing a type of therapy and therapist. At the end of the day, it is a very personal decision.

It is perhaps worth noting that research suggests that experienced counsellors and psychotherapists who are from different types (or modalities) of therapy (e.g. a person-centred and a CBT therapist) tend to share more in common in terms of how they work, than newly qualified colleagues working within the same type of therapy as each other.

I emphasise the importance of ‘practice-based-evidence’, which is about being attuned to what does and does not work for a particular client I am working with.

I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). They ensure that a therapist who are registered with them meet a minimum set of training standards. I abide by their professional code of ethics. As a member of the BACP I am required to have monthly one and a half hour sessions with a clinical supervisor, who is a trained therapist and supervisor. They are bound by the same rules of confidentiality. I respect the confidentiality of clients, and do not provide information in these sessions that would make them easily identifiable to my supervisor. The focus of these sessions is how I am working and is to help ensure that I am doing so in an effective and ethical way.

I encourage clients to raise any concerns about their therapy with me, even if it feels like a minor issue. This can be an important part of the effectiveness of therapy.

If I were not to address any concerns to your satisfaction, or you felt unable to discuss the issue with me directly, the BACP has a complaints process that you can use:

How to complain about a BACP member