We all have times when we are just not quite right, perhaps we feel ‘stuck’. Our grief, anxieties, sadness may have become overwhelming and we don’t know where to start to unravel them and feel better. Perhaps we face situations that, for whatever reason, are not necessarily going to change in the near future, so how do we live with them?
Counselling can provide you with a safe space where you can talk with someone who is not part of your regular circle of friends or family, someone who will listen to you and help you to work out your next steps and how to deal with your feelings and experiences. A counsellor won’t judge you and they don’t offer you advice or tell you what to do, but they may give you some tools to help you manage those experiences and feelings. Counselling does not mean there is something wrong with you, in fact it means that you can see that you are struggling and you could do with some help.
After an initial 30-minute assessment, if we both decide that we can work together, I will send to you an Agreement to Counselling for you to read, sign and return. I will also send you a Client Record Sheet where you will input personal details like name, address, contact details and next of kin. I will also send a Counselling Assessment form. These three documents help to underpin the professional nature of the therapeutic relationship, what we can expect from each other, and ensure your safety and well-being as we move forward.
This depends on a host of factors. Needless to say, I commit to working with you with an end goal in sight. Ethically, it would be wrong of me to work with you indefinitely – it is my hope that through therapy, you gain healing and wholeness, increased resilience and a better sense of yourself so you can move forward in your life. How long this takes depends upon what you wish to work on in your sessions. We will review at regular intervals to see how you feel therapy is working for you, if you wish to change focus or the way we work together. You are free to end counselling at any point, but it is best if we can agree a final session, prior to its happening, in order to close in a calm and safe way.
Every qualified counsellor is ethically obliged to have supervision in line with the number of clients they have at any one time, their own experience and the presenting issue(s) of their clients. However, a counsellor’s professional body will set a recommendation. I meet with my supervisor at least once a month to talk confidentially about how best to help the clients I am currently working with. My supervisor is highly experienced, having been a counsellor, counselling tutor and a CPCAB course moderator. They are also a Christian.
What is said in counselling remains confidential. I may talk to my supervisor about how I work with you, but your identity will remain confidential. They will not even know your name.
There are some exceptions to confidentiality. For example, legal and criminal exceptions or safeguarding exceptions – if I feel you, a vulnerable adult or child that you speak of, is at risk of serious harm.