Helping people help themselves.

Registered Charity No 297034

Following your initial assessment there may be a waiting period before you get your first counselling session. This can be cut down, depending on what preferences you gave for your availability. It is our aim to get you into counselling by twelve weeks from the time you first contacted the agency. During this wait the office staff, who are trained counsellors, are available to you for support.

COUNSELLING AND YOUR COUNSELLOR

The relationship between counsellor and client is special, unique and outside the family circle and friendships. It is based on the development of trust and confidentiality, and the ability and skill of the counsellor to listen and reflect. It aims to help you, the client towards making your own decisions and working through fears, stresses and anxieties that may be inhibiting you. Within counselling you will be encouraged to talk and the counsellor will listen, giving prompts if you get stuck and helping you look at your problem from different angles and depths. The aim is to help you find ways to explore, understand and cope better with your situation. The counsellor won’t tell you what to do or impose his/her values on you.

CONFIDENTIALITY

It is essential that you are able to feel safe within counselling. Your counsellor is bound by an ethical framework not to disclose any information about your work together. However all counsellors are under strict supervision to ensure the safety of the work. Certain notes may be taken for use in educational clinical work and privacy will be respected by using a carefully disguised form.

HOW LONG WILL COUNSELLING LAST?

The initial agreement will be for six one-hour sessions, on a weekly basis. This will be reviewed and extended if necessary.

KEEPING THE AGREEMENT

You, your counsellor and the office team share the responsibility for making your agreement work.
You are required to give reasonable notice if you are unable to attend an appointment. If an emergency arises on the day of your appointment you should inform the office at the earliest possible time. The office will inform your counsellor of the cancellation.
Your counsellor will keep the office informed of any changes to appointments they agree with you and will give the office sufficient notice of cancelling an appointment in order that you may be contacted.
You and the counsellor will be responsible for telling each other about holidays or anything else that will cause a break in appointments. At your last session before a break it will be the counsellors’ responsibility to confirm your first appointment after the break. Your counsellor will inform the office of breaks in appointments.
If you do not attend an appointment without giving notice of cancellation, you will be contacted, seeking confirmation that you will keep your next appointment. If you do not wish to continue with counselling, the office will offer a last appointment with your counsellor to bring counselling to a conclusion. If there is no response a final letter will be sent, formally ending your agreement with us.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT MISSED APPOINTMENTS INCUR COSTS FOR THE SERVICE AND INCREASE WAITING TIMES TO NEW CLIENTS.