Q. Is counselling confidential?

A. Generally speaking, all the work we would undertake would be confidential, though there are a some rare and unusual exceptions to this which I can go into further during our first meeting.

All counsellors, my-self included, use a facility called supervision. This is where the counsellor is able to consult with another qualified practitioner to work through and clarify his work. This is done without use of client’s names etc and enables the counsellor to work in the safest and most effective manner. This is a requirement from nearly every professional body, especially BACP, of whom I'm a member. As sportsmen have coaches, counsellors have supervisors.

Q. I work shifts and can only do certain times, can you still help?

A.  As this is such a common issue, I’ve arranged for a number of slots to be available from very early morning to the evening. This can be discussed further when we get together at our first meeting.

Q. Do counsellors only deal with specific problems?

A. The range of problems and issues to be worked though are almost infinite. While some schools of thought declare that anyone would benefit from counselling, it’s probably more true to say that some life issues respond better than others. Investigation as to the suitability of counselling for your problem can be a focus of the initial consultation or even first phone call. If we decide counsellng is not the best option for you in this case, we can have a look at other possibilities.

Q. How many sessions will it take?

A. It’s very difficult to say how long the process may take. Sometimes only one or two sessions have been required while others have found they needed much more time. One of the major aspects of counselling is that it's a process rather than a final product. Not surprisingly, patterns and issues that have been evolving over years or decades may take some time to unpick and digest.

Q. I’m worried about the cost, is it expensive?

A. The cost per session can be discussed at the initial consultation. I have a certain amount of flexibility towards individual financial situations and if cost were to be a real difficulty I would do all I could to help.