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Counselling in general       Other matters of concern       Time and money
The kind of counselling we offer       SITE LINKS

Questions and answers...

Counselling in general

• A safe place in which to explore feelings and experiences without being judged

• A time and a place to reflect without hurry or pressure 

• Somewhere to talk through problems with a person who will seek to understand you

• Time with someone whose job is to work with you to resolve your problems

• Time for you and your concerns

• A time and a place to really get to know yourself

• A time and a place in which to grow

• Anxiety

• Alcohol/drug related problems

• Bereavement

• Bullying and abuse

• Depression

• Eating problems and 'disorders'

• Pregnancy

• Post-Traumatic Stress 

• Relationship difficulties

• Recurrent bad dreams

• Sexual worries

• Stress

• Matters from childhood

• And, in general, anything you feel is getting in the way of living a full and productive life

People's experience varies. However, over the long-term, you can probably expect

• Greater self-acceptance

• An increased sense of what is important to you and really matters in your life

• More trust in yourself; more trust in others

• A growing ability to relate with confidence to others

• A growing ability to cope with problems

• Overall, an unlocking of your potential

• Somebody telling you what to do

• Somebody judging you

• A wonder-cure for everything 

• Always easy

• Counselling is for anything which gets in the way of life

• It can lead to a deeper, richer, more satisfying way of living

• It doesn't always make things more comfortable.

• Counselling is not about judgement and other people's opinions

Other matters of concern

Everyone involved in counselling is best aware that the law does not recognise client-counsellor confidentiality. Leaving aside the possibility of legal direction, nothing you say will be shared with anyone else, anywhere else, unless

• You wish us to contact someone on your behalf

• We believe you or someone else may be at serious risk of harm and there is no alternative

Even when there is a serious risk of harm, we would always try to discuss this with you first.

• Clinical supervision is an exception to this, but supervision is itself protected by a confidentiality agreement.

• It is very rare for a counsellor to break confidentiality; at Counselling People, confidentiality is a priority.

• There is no standard answer.

• Some clients get what they need in 1 or 2 sessions, others come for several weeks, months, or years.

• We work with our clients to determine what it is they do want from counselling, when that has been achieved, and when it is right for them to end counselling.

• Some clients do find long-term counselling particularly useful.

• Your counsellor may be able to give you an approximate answer once you have started.

• Counselling is confidential within the limits of the law.

• How long you spend in counselling depends upon what you want from counselling and how long that takes to achieve.

• We do not assume standard off-the-shelf responses to these questions. We know from experience that there are none.

Time and money

The 'going rate' for private counselling varies with geographical region and the counsellor's sense of their place in the market. At Counselling People we

• offer a sliding scale based upon ability to pay 'benchmarked' to the local going rate

• encourage clients to negotiate an affordable rate particularly if they seek long-term work

• offer some low-cost counselling for clients who are able to be flexible about the time of day they have their sessions and their choice of counsellor

Most counsellors do work to fairly strict 50 or 60 minute sessions. However

• We find that if we encourage clients to determine what length session suits them, and we work with that, then counselling will be more useful to them.

• Few of our clients do settle for the standard 'counselling hour'. 1.5hr to 2hr is more usual.

• But you decide, not us.

• We charge for the time we spend with a client

• If a client pays £40/hr, and has a 1.5hr session, then it will cost £60

• We encourage clients to negotiate an hourly rate which is sustainable for them

• Clive and some like minded colleagues and students have worked with this flexible model even within institutions that usually apply rigid time boundaries

• According to clients, and according to our own sense of things, flexibility works best

• Clive has written a number of articles about the issue. Here is a LINK to the most recent.

• We cannot speak for other counsellors

• Within reason (and allowing for the needs of other clients) we try to offer counselling at times which will suit you

• We offer counselling on weekends, during the evening, and early in the morning when requested

• Usually, we can fit in a first appointment within the week

• We negotiate an hourly rate with our clients which takes into account ability to pay.

• We are happy to provide sessions longer than the "industry standard" 50 minute counselling hour.

• We charge for the actual time we spend with a client.

• We try to offer appointments which will suit your schedule.

The kind of counselling we offer

• Person-centred counselling plus focusing ('talk therapy')

• Play and expressive therapy (sandbox, drawing, painting, drama...'chairs'...)

• Face-to-face and telephone

• Nope, some of us can get quite yappy...

• Seriously, that's a parody of classical client-centred counselling, and we are much more active.

• HOWEVER we are completely guided by what the client wants and where the client is right now. We DON'T push, tell you what to do, or give you 'homework'.

• We will be straight with you.

• That's a big question.

• It is a way of getting in touch with what your body knows and not just what your head thinks.

• It is research-based and effective.

• Anyone can learn to focus.

• It grew out of person-centred therapy, and some of us think it is still a part of person-centred therapy.

• Clive has written about focusing: LINK

• Check out www.focusing.org

• We cannot put you in touch with them, that would break confidentiality.

• A lot of our clients have known someone else who has seen us.

• Although the research shows all talk therapies to be roughly as effective as each other, it also shows that clients who experience person-centred therapy and have something to compare to prefer person-centred therapy.

• For us, they are: counselling is a spiritual practice.

• What matters, however, is how our clients see and experience things.

• We are happy to work with spiritual experience, and we are happy to work with agnostics, atheists, and people who think it is all just daft.

• Person-centred

• 'Active'

• Talk and expressive

• Focusing

• Client-led, client-led, client-led*

*After putting this section together, Clive started thinking, and in Clive Reflects he tries to say a little more about the kind of counselling we offer.

If you have questions which are not answered here...

• The answer may be on another of our web pages

• You might try the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy website

www.bacp.co.uk

•  or the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors website

www.bc-counsellors.org

• telephone us on

0777 56 500 14 (UK)

250 674 3635 (Ca)

• or email

enquiries@counsellingpeople.com

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January 2010       copyright Clive Perraton Mountford