It’s a very personal decision but you will know when things are not right in your life. It may be that you feel that you cannot share things with friend’s family or work colleagues. Counselling gives a confidential safe space to be able to explore your thoughts and difficulties. It’s a unique experience and one that can be over a few sessions, several months or sometimes years. However the average amount of sessions is around 8 and evidence suggests that between 8 – 12 sessions allows most clients to move forward significantly. Working on historical issues the counselling would need to take place over a longer period, especially if these are connected with your childhood or a significant trauma.

Absolutely not, people come to counselling for many reasons not because they have been diagnosed by a Dr or Psychiatrist with a mental health condition. Arguably in many cases the label of a mental health condition is not helpful, and can lead to the prescriptions of anti-depressants. Whilst this does help some people there is plenty of research to suggest that counselling is as effective as antidepressants in helping people to feel better about themselves and their lives.

The simple answer is “Yes”! Research indicates that 80% of clients will make more improvement in a counselling relationship than visiting their GP to address their emotional difficulties. Research also suggests that counselling interventions are as effective as each other whether you chose a Person Centred, Psychodynamic, Rational Emotive Counsellor, or a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.

Each session is 50 minutes in duration (the counselling hour), and the ideal gap between sessions is one week. This can be varied according to need. Sometimes two sessions a week may be necessary and sometimes bi weekly, but stretching sessions out for longer would reduce the impact of the counselling research suggests.

This depends on the Counsellor that you choose. I offer reasonably priced counselling because I believe cost should not prevent anyone from seeking the help that they need. My standard charges are £50 for an appointment.  I offer concessions for those who are financially challenged. My session fees are negotiable and I retain two low cost interventions.  I work in the evenings Monday – Thursday and some Saturdays depending on demand and schedules

Every counsellor at whatever level in their career should be registered with a professional body the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) or with the UKCP (the UK Council for Psychotherapists) and both follow an ethical code of practice. I am a registered member of the BACP and I follow the BACP Ethical Framework.