Individual counselling

I offer weekly appointments in person at my garden office in Ashton Keynes (near Cirencester, Swindon, Cricklade, Malmesbury). I also work online, so I can see you without the time or cost of travel, wherever you live.

Counselling appointments last for 50 minutes and would be at the same time each week.  I don’t limit the number of sessions; we would decide together how long it is helpful for you to do counselling.   

I charge £55 per session, or £60 for evenings (after 5pm).  The first session should help to clarify what you are looking for, and you are free to decide afterwards whether I am the right counsellor for you.  Experience suggests that this is a more helpful way to make the decision than phoning or emailing with questions.  That said, you are of course welcome to phone or email with any questions.

I realise that seeking help and choosing a counsellor can be challenging. I encourage you to take this first step and my intention is to make it as easy as possible.

Relationship counselling

I offer relationship counselling for couples.  These sessions are an hour long, at a cost of £85. 

I see my role as creating a space where difficult things can be talked about in a safe, balanced and constructive way.  I seek to ensure that both parties are heard, and can hear the other’s response, to come to a greater shared understanding of the relationship and the way forward.  Sessions will include a mix of direct questions, giving space for you each to speak and encouraging you to talk directly to one another.  We may agree tasks for you to try at home if this feels helpful.

It may be that you are bringing a specific issue that is very live or you may be recognising an ongoing pattern of unhelpful communication, or that you repeatedly get ‘stuck’ in a particular argument or way of relating to one another.  Exactly what we do in our sessions will be shaped by what you bring; I don’t work to a prescribed format.  The total number of sessions is flexible, as is the frequency, and we would discuss expectations around this in the first session. 

Counselling is not guaranteed to preserve a relationship; and that is not always the goal in any case.  My intention is to work with you to find a positive way forward together or come to a respectful agreement about an alternative. 

Relationship counselling sessions can be online or in person, in my garden office in Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire.  This is 5 minutes from Cricklade, 10 minutes from Cirencester, 20 minutes from Swindon or Malmesbury.

Email or correspondence counselling

Email counselling can be an excellent alternative to a weekly fixed-time in-person appointment, and there are many people for whom these constraints are a barrier.  With Email counselling you can write at a time which feels most beneficial for you: maybe when you are free of work or family commitments; or when things feel especially difficult; or when your mind feels clear and you are more able to articulate what you want to say.

Some people find expressing themselves through writing easier than talking to someone face-to-face. Expressing yourself through writing can be extremely cathartic and bring a sense of relief – whether it is something happening right now which is causing you pain and distress, or whether it is something which has happened in the past which you’d like to work through within a safe and trusting space.

Email counselling allows you to write in privacy in your own space. It can give you time to think about what you want to say.  It also allows more time to read and process therapeutic responses and you will have a written record of each interaction.  The validation and insight gained through receiving your therapeutic response can often feel quite powerful.

You would write and send an email to me in your own time. Within an agreed time period (usually a week) I will send you a therapeutic response.  I will spend approximately 1 hour on my response – so I would suggest around 800 words as a guide length for your emails. We may agree a number of exchanges upfront, or it can be open-ended.  As a guide, I charge £50 per response, but this may be negotiable depending on circumstances and the length of our agreement.

Email or correspondance counselling is particularly useful for:

• People working irregular hours who cannot commit to a fixed weekly appointment.
• People with anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, illness, limited mobility or other issues who want support but would find it difficult to attend in-person appointments.
• Those who cannot afford the time required to travel to and from meetings.
• Expats seeking counselling in countries where their native language is not spoken.

Therapeutic writing

I run Writing for Wellbeing sessions for community groups. For example, for older people at The Churn Project in Cirencester; for people affected by cancer at Charlie’s Community Support in Gloucester. 

I am available to run therapeutic writing groups or one-off sessions on request – please contact me to discuss this.