FAQ's

I am registered with both BACP and UKCP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy). Both of these organisations have a complaints procedure so that members of the public can directly raise concerns about a registered therapist.

For the initial meeting I ask couples to allow an hour and a half (subsequent meetings are for fifty minutes). This first conversation is an opportunity for me to hear what has brought you and for all three of us to see if we think that ongoing sessions would be useful.  If I cannot help you, I would try to assist you to find someone more suitable. If we decide to work together, we would plan to meet for six weeks and then review things before deciding on longer term therapy. 

Sessions are held at the same time each week and I seek to understand how each partner is experiencing their relationship. My aim is to create a secure space in which both partners can become clearer about feelings and thoughts. My interventions will sometimes be aiming to validate and support, at other moments to encourage a client to stay with a difficult feeling so that it can be known more fully and perhaps communicated to the partner.

Over time, if the couple experiences the therapist as reliable and non-judgemental, a trust develops in which it is safe for them to connect more fully to themselves and each other.

I will not keep data longer than it is needed for its original purpose and I keep electronic data to a bare minimum. Information is held in confidence and with secure protocols. In the rare cases that I keep information in a Word Document I use encryption. Notes are held in hard copy in a locked cabinet. When I start work with clients I provide them with my Privacy Statement and seek their permission to hold their data. I am registered with the ICO.

Conflict – when disagreements have become acrimonious.  [If a couple were dealing with actual violence I would help them find an organisation which can offer more support than I can as a single practitioner.] 

Ambivalence - the couple are unsure if their future is together.

Infidelity – in different forms

Sense of loneliness – sadness in the loss of connection and loss of a comfort with each other

Loss of sexual intimacy and sometimes of all physical touch

Addiction – I can offer to help couples deal with the aftermath of addiction but usually it will be appropriate for the partner in recovery to also see a specialist counsellor.

Health check - some couples use sessions to deepen their connection, to build resilience when times are good.

I am trained to offer therapy to couples with a range of difficulties and degrees of distress. For some couples it may be appropriate for other health professionals to also be involved. This could apply where a couple are facing addicition or mental illness. Where there has been an affair, that relationship would need to end for the therapy to have a chance of working. Where there is active violence between partners,  ordinary therapy can put a couple at greater risk and I would therefeore help a couple to find a specialist service.

Sessions are confidential within the bounds of UK law.  When I work with couples the confidentiality is shared between the three of us. When I start work with clients I provide them with my Privacy Statement and seek their permission to hold their data. I am registered with the ICO.

The fee for the initial, and subsequent, sessions is £130 for couples; I sometimes have reduced fee places available.

Contacts for people in abusive relationships needing immediate support:

• Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 2000 247

• National Centre for Domestic Violence 0800 970 2070