Getting started
Assessment/Initial appointment: £20 - around 90 minutes
Ongoing weekly appointments: £45 - 1 hour
Appointments offered Wednesday to Friday, 10.30am to 7.30pm. You can vary the day/time of each weekly appointment if needed.
My counselling room is outside Totton, just off the main A35 between Totton and Ashurst. Easily accessible from Totton, Hythe and the Waterside, Southampton, Romsey, Winchester and the New Forest. There is free on-street parking. There are nearby bus stops linking Southampton, Totton, the New Forest and the Waterside (BlueStar buses 6, 8, 9). Totton railway station is approx 0.8 miles away.
With regard to accessibility, there are 3 steep-ish and narrow steps up into my counselling room.
If you live a long way from Totton we can also meet online.
Getting started - the 'assessment' appointment
Initially you will have contacted me by email or text. We will probably then have a short chat, by phone or email, so you can give me a little more information about yourself and what has led you to get in touch.
If we then agree to meet, your assessment, or introductory session, will be at a reduced rate of £20. This session provides you with plenty of time (up to 90 minutes) to get a feel for my style, personality and the way I work so you can carefully consider if I might be the right counsellor for you, and whether you'd like to commit to ongoing weekly sessions. Finding the right counsellor is important and the quality of the relationship between us underpins all our work together. You will need to feel that I am someone with whom you can feel safe enough to share personal thoughts, feelings and experiences and who you can grow to trust.
At our assessment appointment I will collect your contact details and some background information, etc, and you will be able to tell me more about yourself, your story and what has brought you to counselling at this time. If I ask you any questions that you're not ready to answer, that's fine; you are always at liberty to say, "no". You can also ask me any questions you may have. If, by the end of this session, you feel I'm not the right counsellor for you then that is absolutely fine and I wish you well in your search. If I feel that a different counsellor or other professional may be more suited to your needs then I will tell you.
If we decide to continue with on-going sessions these will normally be weekly but they don't have to be on the same day at the same time each week. I offer appointments Wednesday to Friday 10.30am to 7.30pm. If it suits you to do so, we can find mutually convenient dates/times as we go.
If you'd like to know more about how I ensure I work professionally and ethically, you can read that here.