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Appointments: Mon-Sun 10am to 9pm

Availability Limited on Mondays.

Other days have some availability morning, afternoon and evening so advise preference.

Unavailable 12-19th January 2024 and 5th-12th April 2024

In general sessions are booked in 6 week sets.

I have lived experience of my own mental health crisis and this led me to become a counsellor to sit beside those that are quietly crying out for someone to listen to them.

I am a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist and a registered member of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¾«×¼×ÊÁÏ.

As such, I work to Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¾«×¼×ÊÁÏ’s standards of Good Practice and their Code of Ethics.

My approach to working integrates person centred and psychodynamic theory and focuses on your agenda and what you need from counselling.

This means I use all my skills to help you understand how you may feel about your difficulties, incorporating different psychological strategies and models to comprehend your experiences, then working to see how to overcome these barriers and become more aware of your own potential through self actualisation so you can achieve what you need to become the best that you can be.

It all starts with your first move

In practice I use listening and talk therapy working with adults of all ages offering 1:1 therapeutic sessions.

I am an integrative counsellor working from Person Centred & Psychodynamic theory background.

Face to face sessions are available in Watford and Rickmansworth in confidential spaces and many clients choose to work online via Zoom or Teams for convenience and to help with budgeting.

I offer long-term and short-term therapy, working on a 6 week 'on', 1 week 'off' schedule - I find this gives you an often much needed week off and frees up that morning, afternoon, evening for you and gives you a free week if you want to plan any time away. It also means you have a week off of the cost of therapy which I know from my own experience can be a barrier to seeking much needed help.

When you first make contact we can discuss and agree the specific framework for working together ... it's an important step in a successful therapeutic relationship.

£50 is for online therapy

£60 is for face to face to partly cover room costs and travel

Consideration will be given for those coming from lower cost Agency therapy and a proportion of clients are offered therapy at £35 per session for online work

Trainee Counsellors should contact me to discuss their course requirements for personal therapy

It is useful if you complete an assessment that I send you beforehand but if you feel uncomfortable with this we can go through it during the first session together.

In our first session about 10 minutes will be spent agreeing how we will work together.

We will spend time establishing what your expectations are and what you want out of counselling ... and it's okay if you're 'not really sure'.

Together we'll make the most of our time together and agree the framework for our following sessions.

Please contact me to check availability so we can find a regular time and day of the week to work together

If you've not had therapy before then it might seem confusing or overwhelming reading about everyone's various methods of working.

There's no absolute right or wrong when it comes to therapy, even if you've had therapy before and believe you know what you don't want (more likely than knowing what you do want) ... what's most important will be your readiness to work and our commitment to our work together and the building of a therapeutic relationship.

The key is how 'we work' and not how I work. Therapy is not about coming to get 'fixed' by your counsellor or how to 'feel better' - rather it is about becoming 'better at feeling' and with the deep understanding that comes with this you are able to 'fix' yourself.

I don't like the word 'fix', you're not broken. If you're anything like I was then it's more like a feeling of being lost, disconnected from self, from others, not knowing who you are or why you are, feeling alone, desperately alone, sometimes in mental turmoil, in emotional pain that sometimes feels too much to bear ... ruminating, depressed, anxious, possibly unable to function and struggling to hold up the mask(s) you've created over time to be who everyone expects you to be at different times and places ... lost from yourself. Falling apart perhaps.

So how I work is much less important than what you want to work on but if it is helpful for you then I work from a Person Centred theory approach in conjunction with Psychodynamic theory.

We may talk about whether some elements of CBT would be useful for you but I offer a long term therapeutic approach that is intended to offer long term help whereas CBT is favoured in some quarters for its cost efficiency and 'measurability' for the funding bodies that support it. That's not to say it's not efficacious for many people. It's just not what I intend our work to be. So there will not be 'homework' in the necessary and structured way required by CBT.

The previous section hopefully tells you pretty much all you need to know. Do contact me with any questions you may have.

It is useful for you and I both, to have an initial telephone call to give you an opportunity to outline why you'd like to start therapy, what you're looking to achieve and what you're expecting from counselling - and to ask any questions you may have after we have discussed how we might work together.

After this initial call which will normally be around 30 mins - if we agree to work together then we'd set a regular day and time we can both commit to.

Sessions are 50 mins to allow time between clients.

Sessions can be face to face if you are fairly local to Watford, either for home visits if you need them for mobility reasons or at one of my local clinics.

Alternatively most sessions are now carried out via Zoom or Teams or Google Meet as this is cheaper for yourself and saves your travelling time and possible cost.

In all cases it is important that we work from a safe, private space where we will not be interrupted.

Our sessions are unlimited and we would agree together regular reviews to keep the work focused on your priorities and to help determine and plan any possible end to our work together.

The 30 min 'first session' call is not charged for at this time.

I feel it's important for you and I to speak before we make the commitment to work together and therefore enable you to speak to as many counsellors as you need to before you feel ready to commit - hence free of charge.

In our initial 30 minute call we can also discuss the benefits or otherwise of assessments and basically anything you want.