Pricing

The first session is mainly for us to get to know each other and whether we want to work together. It’s a chance for me to understand what you’re hoping to get from our work together and for you to get a sense of whether I’m the right person to support you. I like to offer a free first session because I feel that until you’ve met me, it’s hard for you to know whether I’m the right person for you. I also encourage people to talk to a few counsellors/ coaches/ therapists before deciding on one.

Individual sessions are generally 50 minutes long. If you find that this length doesn't work for you, we can discuss shorter or longer sessions.

Couples sessions can be 60 or 90 minutes depending on your preference.

Group sessions run for 90 minutes.

I work at The Practice Rooms on Ship Street in Brighton. I will send you detailed instructions before our first face-to-face session.

If you cancel a session with more than 48 hours notice, there is no charge. After this time, I must charge half the cost of the session to cover my expenses and lost income.

I am a trained counsellor with a Level 6 certificate in counselling from the Link Centre, and I have several hundred hours of client experience. I meet the requirements for professional accreditation with the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS).

In addition I’m committed to ongoing professional development and training through courses, conferences and peer groups.

I am currently in training at The Link Centre for a Level 7 qualification as a Psychotherapist and accreditation by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

I also have an MSc in Psychology from the University of Sussex.

My coaching work draws on my 20 years experience in project management and entrepreneurship, as well as my MBA and degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Anything you share with me will generally remain confidential and will only be shared with my psychotherapeutic supervisor, who is also bound by confidentiality agreements. However, if I believe there is a risk to your well-being or the well-being of someone else, I may need to contact other services. In such cases, I will make an effort to discuss this with you beforehand.

In our first session, I’d discuss your goals for therapy and decide together the different ways we might work together. I think of this as establishing a therapeutic contract. This therapeutic contract can be revisited whenever we feel that our work needs to change direction.

Depending on my client’s personality and preferences, I will work with some combination of head, heart, and body - or cognitively, emotionally, and somatically. We each have unique ways of dealing with the world and ourselves that come most naturally to us, and others that require stretching ourselves.

Cognitive work involves working with thoughts and perceptions to understand or reframe our experiences. Emotional work might involve feeling, expressing and making sense of our emotions in the safety of the therapy room. Somatic work may involve movement, play with objects or exploring physical feelings that arise during therapy.

Finally, I believe that each of us needs to decide for ourselves who we want to be and where our values lie. For me, this means meeting my clients on their terms and working towards what they want to change in an open, honest and respectful way.

While coaching focuses mainly on behaviours and goals, counselling and psychotherapy delve deeper into the causes and drivers behind behaviours.

In coaching we would focus on current problems and causes of success and failure in your work and life. Counselling and psychotherapy tend to look deeper into underlying causes.

Coaching will tend to focus on workplace issues more, but not exclusively.

I believe in making therapy as accessible as possible to everyone. For this reason, I offer reduced prices to those unable to pay the full price. I can only do this for a limited number of sessions. If this is something you need, please indicate this in the contact form.

Group therapy tends to be lower cost per person than individual sessions. Whether or not group therapy is suitable for you is best discussed first in individual therapy.

If none of these options works for you, there are some low-cost therapy services available that can be found through online searches. In addition, the NHS, hospices, addiction services, LGBTQ+ services and other support services sometimes offer free or low-cost counselling to specific groups. In all cases, you should check the experience and qualifications of the therapists provided.