How can I book an appointment?

Many clients seek a brief phone conversation with me prior to booking an appointment and if you would like this we can arrange a time for a phone call (there is no charge for this). Just contact me by email/text/phone.

You can see what appointment times are available, and make an online booking here. Alternatively contact me by phone, text or email to arrange a time to meet.

How do I pay for sessions?

Full information on paying for sessions is available here.

What is the difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy?

The distinction between counsellors and psychotherapists is increasingly blurred and although I am a qualified psychotherapist you will notice that throughout this site I use both terms.

Nevertheless an accredited psychotherapy course with be longer than most counselling trainings and prepare therapists to work at greater depth and complexity of issues.

Counselling tends to be more short-term looking a specific issues, while psychotherapy tends toward longer work, addressing broader, underlying issues that can effect many aspects of our lives.

However there are many well trained, experienced counsellors who will undertake long-term work, just as psychotherapists may also undertake shorter-term focussed therapy.

A quick internet search will provide many articles on this issue. Here for example.

How should I go about choosing a therapist?

As I’ve written elsewhere on this site, finding the right therapist, someone you feel you can trust and open up to, is vital to the success of any counselling or psychotherapy. I will initially meet with you for a few appointments to allow time to for us both to judge whether ongoing appointments would be helpful. (See the section titled ‘What happens next’).

UKCP provides a basic guide to choosing a therapist, as does ‘Netdoctor’.

What is ‘CBT’ and do you offer this?

‘CBT’, or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, is a talking therapy. ‘CBT’ looks at how we think about a situation and how this affects the way we act. In turn our actions can affect how we think and feel. The therapist and client work together in changing the client’s behaviours, or their thinking patterns, or both of these.

The NHS choices website offers a good guide to CBT, and CBT is available extensively in the NHS as a particularly cost-effective treatment. Your GP may be able to refer you to a ‘CBT’ practitioner, and if you are specifically seeking CBT treatment then I would suggest you seek a practitioner specifically qualified in this approach.

In my work with you we might frequently look at your behaviours and thinking patterns, and actions you might take to help effect change. This is similar to a ‘CBT’ approach. However my work with you will not concentrate solely on ‘CBT’ and  includes a broader range of approaches.