What to expect
Nothing about this is meant to be a mystery.
Here is exactly what happens, from the moment you write to us through to the point where the work is properly underway.
You write to us
Just a short note about who you are, what's brought you here and how to reach you. Everything that arrives is read by a person rather than sorted by an intake team, and we reply within two working days.
A free fifteen-minute conversation
This isn't an assessment and there's nothing to prepare. You're working out whether you'd want to talk to this person again, and honestly that's the whole question at this stage.
Your first session
Sixty or ninety minutes, depending on what you've booked. Your counsellor will want to know where you are now, what you're dealing with and what you'd like to be different. Nobody will ask you to lay out your whole history in one sitting.
The work itself
Most people come weekly to begin with and then less often as things settle. Your counsellor will explain what they're doing and why. If the fit stops working at any point, say so and we'll move you without any fuss.
What a session is actually like
You join a secure video link from wherever you are, and there's no app to install. Your counsellor will usually start by asking where you are today rather than picking up exactly where you left off, because how you've arrived is itself part of the material.
Some sessions are mostly conversation. Others are slow and quite quiet, particularly when the work is happening in the body. Some are practical and focused on specific skills. You'll always know which kind you're in, and you can always say when something isn't working for you.
Pace, and who sets it
Nothing happens in a session that you haven't agreed to. If your counsellor thinks you're moving faster than you can absorb, they'll tell you so and suggest slowing down. That's a clinical judgement said out loud rather than a rule imposed on you, and you're entirely free to disagree with it.
Confidentiality, and where it stops
What you say stays between you and your counsellor. There are four legal exceptions that apply to every counsellor: a serious and immediate risk of harm to you, a serious and immediate risk to someone else who can be identified, reasonable grounds to suspect a child is being harmed or neglected, and a court order. Your counsellor will go through these with you in the first session. Our privacy notice explains how records are kept.
How long sessions run
An hour is the usual starting point and it's enough for most ongoing work. Ninety minutes tends to suit trauma work, EMDR, grief, spiritual integration and couples, because in those an hour often ends just as something is beginning to move. Your counsellor will suggest what fits and will tell you if that changes later on.
Recordings
We don't record sessions unless you ask us to. If you'd like a recording for your own use, say so and you'll have it within a day. Quite a few people find that listening again is where the session properly lands.
If you need to cancel
You can cancel or move a session at no charge with more than twenty-four hours' notice. Inside that window the full fee applies, because your counsellor has held the time and can't fill it at short notice. If something genuinely unavoidable comes up, tell them. They can use their discretion and they do.
If cost is what's stopping you, please say so rather than going without. We hold a small number of reduced-fee places at all times. They aren't advertised and they aren't means-tested, and nobody will ask you to explain yourself.
Start with fifteen minutes.
It's free, there's nothing to fill in, and you're not agreeing to anything. It's just a conversation about whether this is the right place for you.