Individual counselling is a form of talking therapy where you work one-to-one with a trained counsellor. It is a confidential and safe space where you can speak openly about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

→ The main page covers who counselling is for and what brings people to it in more detail.

The first session is a chance for us to get to know each other and for you to get a feel for how I work. If you are new to counselling, it is also a chance to see how it feels to talk in this kind of setting.
Do not feel you need to have everything worked out before you arrive. Many people come to their first session feeling nervous, unsure of what to say, or even a little apprehensive about being there at all. That is completely understandable and we can work through that together.

I will ask some questions about you and what has brought you to counselling — what has been going on, a little about your background and what you are hoping to get from the counselling process. The questions are designed to begin a conversation and to help us understand what you might want to focus on. There is no pressure to share more than you are ready to.

We will also talk through how the sessions work, discuss confidentiality, and agree on practical matters such as how often we meet. By the end of the first session, my hope is that you leave feeling a little clearer about what is possible and a little more hopeful about the road ahead.

This is one of the most common worries people have before their first session, and it is completely understandable. Counselling can feel different from other kinds of conversations, and it is natural to wonder whether you will know what to say or how to fill the time.

You do not need to come with a script, a list, or even a clear sense of where to start. Many people arrive feeling unsure of what to say, and the conversation finds its way in. You can start with whatever is on your mind, or I will ask a gentle question to help you begin, and we will work it out together.

Silence is also part of the work. It is not something to fill or to feel awkward about. Some of the most useful moments in a session come from sitting with a thought, or noticing what comes up when there is space to do so. You will never be rushed or made to speak before you are ready.

Over time, you may find that things you did not even know were on your mind start to surface. That is a normal part of how counselling unfolds.

It’s hard to say at the start. How long counselling takes depends on a few things:
• The nature of what you are bringing
• How long you have been struggling with it
• How deep-rooted it is
• What you are hoping to achieve
• Your own readiness to explore what comes up

Some people find that six to twelve sessions are enough to gain the clarity and tools they need. Others benefit from working together over a longer period, particularly when what they are bringing runs deeper or has been with them for many years.
Rather than setting a fixed end date from the start, I prefer to check in regularly to review how things are going and whether you feel the sessions are helping. You are always in control of how long we work together.

You know counselling is coming to a natural end when you start to feel clearer, more grounded, and more able to handle what life brings.

Most people attend sessions weekly, particularly at the start of the work when things can feel most difficult. Meeting regularly helps to build momentum and to keep the work moving. From experience, weekly feels like the right amount of time and space to process things between sessions. Too little and the previous session may not have settled; too much and the work can feel disjointed.

As the work progresses and you start to notice positive changes, sessions may naturally move to fortnightly and eventually monthly before coming to an end. This is a way of consolidating what you have learned and checking in as you continue to put things into practice in your day-to-day life.

We will always agree the frequency of sessions together, and this can be adjusted as your needs change.

What you share in our sessions stays between us. Confidentiality is one of the cornerstones of counselling, and it is what makes it possible to speak freely about things you may not have spoken about anywhere else.

There are a few rare exceptions — for example, if I had serious concerns about your safety or the safety of someone else, or if I were required to disclose something by law. I will always try to talk to you first before taking any such step.

As a qualified counsellor, I also discuss my work in supervision with an experienced senior colleague. This is standard practice and helps me to offer you the best possible support. Anything discussed in supervision is itself confidential, and I will not share identifying details about you.

There is no threshold of difficulty you must cross before counselling is for you. You don’t need to be in crisis, or to feel that your problems are “not bad enough” compared to others. If something is weighing on you, or you find yourself returning to the same thoughts, feelings, or patterns and want a different way of being with them, that is enough.

You might come because something has happened — a bereavement, a relationship ending, a change at work — or you might come because nothing particular has happened, but you do not feel like yourself. Both are good reasons.

You might also come simply because you want to understand yourself better, or to do some work on patterns you have noticed but have not had the space to explore. Counselling is not only for difficult times. It can also be a place for growth and reflection.

If you are unsure whether counselling is what you need, the first session is a good way to find out. There is no commitment to continue, and we can take it from there together.

Yes — and the difference matters. A good friend listens, cares, and wants the best for you. But friends are not objective; they are also part of your life. They have their own feelings about what you tell them, their own opinions about the people you talk about, and their own stake in how you are doing.

A counsellor sits outside your life. My only role in our sessions is to listen to you and to help you make sense of what is going on. I am trained to notice patterns, to ask questions you may not have been asked before, and to hold a space where you can think out loud without worrying about how it sounds or how it might affect the other person. There is no advice, no judgement, and no agenda — just careful attention to what matters for you.

Counselling does not replace the support of the people in your life. It does something different alongside them.

It happens, and it’s worth saying directly: not every counsellor is the right fit, and not every approach suits every person. If a previous experience felt unhelpful — or even made things worse — that is useful information, not a reason to write off counselling altogether.

Different counsellors work differently. Some are more directive, others more open-ended. Some focus on patterns of thinking, others on emotion, relationship, or the past. If you’ve had a poor experience before, it’s worth telling me — what felt missing, what didn’t land, what you’d want to be different. That shapes how we work together from the start.

The first session is a chance to get a feel for whether this is the right place for you. There’s no pressure to commit beyond it.