I offer a free 20min initial appointment to explore whether I am right for you and what I can offer will best meet your particular needs. It is important to choose a therapist with whom you feel comfortable.
Psychotherapy & Counselling I am a widely experienced and UKCP registered psychotherapist offering either brief term Counselling or long term Psychotherapy and work with a broad range of issues.
Deciding to see a therapist can be helpful on occasions when we arrive at a point in our lives where we feel overwhelmed or confused and just want to feel better about ourselves without being judged.
At these times Psychotherapy or Counselling can offer clarity, support and a safe place to talk. My aim in working with you would be to help you gain a deeper understanding of your concerns, so that you can make choices regarding possible ways forward, knowing that you are not on you own.
'Developing greater awareness of ourselves leads to understanding, leads to happiness'
Fees I offer a sliding scale fee of between £40 to £60 for a 60min therapy session to suit your circumstances and am happy to agree a fair and manageable fee at our initial meeting. The main focus of interest for me is to be of help and support you in exploring the issues presented. Generally appointments are available Thursday and Fridays between 9am to 8pm and occasionally other times in the week. I would be pleased to meet and if you would like to make an appointment just get in touch.
My practice is in my home in Victoria Grove, Southsea and is a warm peaceful space, conducive to relaxing and being at ease with oneself.
I see clients weekly, fortnightly, sometimes monthly for continued support and have been involved in therapy personally since 1977 and professionally from 1993.
I have been registered with the United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy since 1993 and abide to the UKCP ethical guidelines. I am also a qualified Supervisor to other counsellors and psychotherapists.
How to begin Just contact me by phone or email and we can arrange an the interview session at a convenient time. I offer a no obligation free 20min initial session to see if I can be of help. At this session we discuss in outline the issues that you would like to explore. All issues are discussed in strick confidentiality although, as with all therapists, do have a supervisor where I regularly discuss my way of working.
After the initial interview subsequent sessions are normally arranged to meet circumstances. Weekly sessions are recommended in order to make helpful progress in personal change. There is no obligation for you to decide at the initial session and you can let me know later if you would like to meet again to start sessions. Although most of therapy is straightforward (talking therapy) some clients benefit from working with other creative therapeutic tools which enable them to express their feelings or clarify thinking, which otherwise might be difficult. Ending Therapy Endings are a natural and often challenging aspect of life. In therapy ending sessions also can be a great learning. With long term therapy of a year or more it's helpful to give notice to end and then have an agreed number of two to four sessions to end. Short term of less than a year a week or two is sufficient.
How therapy can help
There can be occasions in our lives when the people or support networks we would normally turn to are either not appropriate or not available to help with a current difficulty. It can be difficult to talk about these issues or influences that happened long ago that are causing conflict and suffering each day. All of our past experiences have an influence in the present moment, the here and now. There are many issues that can lead us to choose therapy Issues such as depression, loss and bereavement, addiction, cultural concerns, sexual conflict, stress, trauma and relationshipconflict are matters where therapy can help. Also difficulties with self esteem or major life changes: coping with a major life events such as loss, separation, divorce or redundancy: feeling generally stressed and unable to cope: facing the transition from one life stage to another: dealing with unresolved emotions: problems we are unable to resolve: feeling low or stuck for no obvious reason. Wanting to change unhelpful behaviours or patterns in our lives. Therapy offers an opportunity to develop greater self awareness of our ourselves our issues and gain essential insight. Issues are explored to attain useful change, learn self acceptance, receive encouragement and real support. Therapy is a joint endeavour to help you gain clarity and understanding of how you created your world and how to develop a different way of managing life and learning to be yourself.