Welcome to my website
I am offering counselling for Basingstoke, Winchester, Andover, Newbury and surrounding areas. Face to Face or Online sessions are also available.
I aim here to give you some ideas about what counselling is and how counselling might be able to help you...
Also a little about who I am as a counsellor, and how I work.
I am a qualified, experienced counsellor, clinical supervisor, and an Accredited Member of BACP. I offer counselling for Basingstoke, Winchester, Andover, Newbury and surrounding areas.
I also offer clinical supervision for counsellors from Basingstoke, Andover, Winchester and surrounding areas, or further afield via online video sessions, please see my Supervision section.
I know what an unnerving experience contacting a counsellor can be: you might feel worried about saying the 'right' things, or about what questions I might ask you. You might be feeling sceptical that anyone can help you at all or be left wondering if your problems are 'bad' enough for therapy. I hope to allay some of these fears.
Read more about my experience and training here.
I am experienced in offering therapy in the following areas:
Stress/Anxiety
Self Harm
Suicidal Thoughts
Relationship Issues
Panic Attacks
Bereavement
Depression
Trauma
How can counselling help?
As a counsellor, I feel privileged to be entrusted with my clients' inner thoughts and feelings, to be invited by them to explore their world and help them understand the difficulties they are experiencing is deeply moving. We live in a particular moment in history where people are often removed from their inner resources and the resources they are surrounded by, I hope to be able to put people back in touch with themselves and their surroundings.
I think the poem by Portia Nelson, 'There's a Hole in My Sidewalk', kind of sums up how counselling can help, by helping you to walk down another street. Click here for the poem in full Portia Nelson.
Self Care
Taking care of your mental health is important. You might find the following links useful:
Help for young people
If you are a young person looking for counselling or are concerned about a young person, these links may be useful for you:
- Papyrus
- Young MINDS (which also has a useful Parents Helpline)
- Rethink Mental Illness
Campaigns
I believe strongly that talking to each other about mental health is important. Therefore I want to add my support to MIND and ReThink Mental Illness's campaign 'Its Time To Change'.
Please click here for more information on 'Time To Change'.
I see counselling as an human condition, in that people have always had a need to seek out other people to talk through their problems
It is known that even in the Middle Ages charmers or healers were known to be dealing with illness aligned with the patients morale and mental equilibrium, this I believe to be akin to early counselling.
My work is informed by Transactional Analysis, which teaches that our past experiences and relationships influence who we are and how we feel, think and behave today. I see my role as a counsellor is to create for you a safe, confidential, free from judgement space for you to explore your inner thoughts, feelings and patterns of behaviour. I aim to enable you to feel listened to, understood and accepted for who you are.
Counselling can help you to change the way you see the world around you and your place in it. I aim to help you to understand yourself more deeply, to perhaps recognise patterns of behaviour that are maybe unhelpful to yourself.
You may find it useful to read through what the NHS say about Counselling, or have a look at some of the client downloads available here.
Clinical Supervision
I offer Clinical Supervision to counsellors across Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. I have extensive experience working with adults and young people in the charity sector, for the local authority and in private practice. I also work a a supervisor for Peter Symonds College supervising groups of their trainee counsellors.
I see supervision as the word suggests- 'super'-' vision' and aim to enable my supervisees to gain more insight into their work, why certain interventions work and others don't, what the impact of the work is on themselves. I enjoy hugely the collaborative aspect of supervision, blending my experience as a tutor, youth counsellor and student to enable my supervisees to gain a greater awareness of their clients, themselves and their interventions.
If you are looking for supervision and would like to discuss this with me further, I offer a free 30 minute consultation either over the phone or at my office. Subsequent sessions can be either face to face at my office, or using Whereby, Zoom or similar. I charge £55 per hour for supervision.
Next Steps
If you are still feeling unsure about Counselling, that's ok, its normal to feel uncertain, especially if you have never had counselling before. I offer a free half hour session where you can come and see me, with no obligations. You get the chance therefore to ask me any questions you may have, or just meet me, I can talk you through how I work and you can decide if you want to work with me. Don't worry about deciding it wouldn't work, the relationship between a client and counsellor needs to be right for the therapy to be effective, so choosing the right counsellor for you is crucial.
Please either text me on the mobile number given (07954 153425) or use the enquiry form below to send me an email. I will contact you as soon as I can and we can arrange a good time for the initial meeting.
My location
I am based in Overton, North Hampshire and see clients from Basingstoke, Winchester, Andover, Newbury and surrounding areas. I will provide location details when we arrange our counselling or supervision sessions.
Fees and availability
Going forward I offer 60 min sessions for £60 per session.
I would aim to see you each week at the same time, but can be flexible if this is difficult for you, I aim to build in reviews every 6 sessions. I can also offer short term therapy which would normally be over 6 sessions only.
Concessions are available please do ask.