I have some availability currently.

I work on: 

Monday morning and afternoon

Tuesday afternoon 

Wednesday afternoon 

Thursday afternoon

My name is Amy (she/her) and I am an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist, with experience seeing clients at Mind BLMK and Herts Mind Network. I am a warm, empathic person and I offer you a confidential space where you can be heard without judgement. 

Whether you are having a hard time or just want to understand yourself better, it can be helpful to have a regular time to talk with someone who really listens. I aim to create a therapeutic space which is as safe and equal as possible for people from all backgrounds. I offer a warm welcome to anyone who may feel excluded, exploited or sidelined by society. 

I invite feedback regularly, so that I can ensure I’m working in a way that is helpful to you. As an integrative therapist, I will explore how you would like to work and draw on different therapeutic models as appropriate. If you are unsure how you want to work or you are new to counselling, that’s ok too! I will listen to you and we can find our way forward together.  I am trained in a variety of approaches including psychodynamic, person-centred, humanistic, CBT, transactional analysis, Gestalt, solution-focussed and existential amongst others. I engage in regular professional development activities to ensure I continue to develop as a practitioner.

Please ask if you would like to see my qualifications. I have an MA and a PGDip in integrative counselling and psychotherapy from the University of East London, both of which I passed with distinction.

At the heart of what I do is a respect for the autonomy of each individual client: you make your own choices and you are the expert in your own life. I am not here to give advice but I will listen to you and collaborate with you towards your goals. 

Whatever you are going through, this way of working can lead to a process of self-discovery, greater self-worth, improved self-esteem and an ability to make new, meaningful choices in life.

I provide integrative counselling and psychotherapy face-to-face and online. Face-to-face sessions take place at Southdown Clinic (https://thesouthdownclinic.co.uk), which is in Harpenden, Herts. Online sessions take place over Zoom from my quiet, private therapy room. Sessions are weekly and last 50 minutes.

Southdown Clinic has a waiting area and toilet facilities. There is plenty of parking nearby. Sadly, however, the room I work in is up two flights of stairs. If this affects you, please do call to discuss how I may be able to adjust my practice to make it more accessible to you.  I am, for instance, able to offer online therapy sessions over Zoom.  Although this is different to meeting in person, it has its own benefits and can be very effective.  Furthermore, if you have any health condition that you feel may affect your ability to access my services, please let me know so that I have an opportunity to make changes.  

Reliability and consistency are important to me and I will endeavour to provide you with the same time, same place on the same day each week. I will give you as much notice as possible of any planned holidays.

Data protection is more important now than ever, so I have a clear privacy policy and am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Your data will only be used for the specific purposes of: arranging our sessions; keeping brief client notes as part of my professional obligations; and, being able to contact someone in the event of an emergency during a session.

I am fully insured with Holistic Insurance and registered with the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¾«×¼×ÊÁÏ. Please ask if you wish to see any of my documentation.

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Before the first session starts, you are welcome to call me for a free, confidential phone call lasting upto 20 minutes, in which you can ask any questions you may have about my work. If you are happy to meet for an initial assessment session (50 minutes), this will be charged at the reduced rate of £45.

This first session can be face-to-face or online depending on my availability. In the first session, I will ask you to answer ten brief, multiple choice questions, to help me gain insight into areas we might wish to discuss. After that, we can just talk. This session is an opportunity for you to see how I work and to let me know what you might want from counselling. It is a chance for both of us to see if we would like to work together.

At the end of the session, I will provide you with my client information, contract and privacy policy, so that you can make an informed choice about whether you wish to engage in further sessions with me.

I will give you some time to think and reflect. I will then contact you after a week to see if you have any further questions about how I work. If, for whatever reason, either of us feel that we would not work well together, then I will offer to refer you on to another suitable practitioner. If you feel that I am not a good fit for you, that is absolutely ok. I understand that I will not be a good fit for every client, but my hope is for you to find someone with whom you are truly comfortable.

If we then decide to continue, we will agree a regular weekly time to meet either online or in person and a number of sessions we would like to have together. We can review the number of sessions as we go along and ensure that the plan we made is still working for you. You can end therapy at any stage but I would ask that you talk to me about any concerns or difficulties beforehand, so that we have a chance to discuss them.