Counselling is not a cure or a quick fix for any emotional or behavioural issue that you may be struggling with. It is more of a process that you go through to reach a better place of understanding that can foster new ways of coping and promote positive change. Counselling is about you having a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space to explore your difficulties and make sense of them through clarity and insight. This may lead to you making new discoveries about yourself or your situation, ‘aha’ moments and find new ways of approaching lives problems.

Given the nature of counselling it can sometimes make you feel worse before you feel better as we are not all used to talking about how we feel and that can be painful. If you are struggling with this then it is something we can talk about and work through together.

What is Trauma Therapy? 

Trauma therapy is a three-phased approach designed to support clients with a diagnosis or suspected diagnosis of PTSD or Complex PTSD or that have a lived experience of complex trauma. Phase 1 includes assessment, psychoeducation and working towards symptom reduction through safety and stabilisation techniques and where appropriate emotion regulation. Phase 2 is processing the trauma drawing from a range of evidence-based trauma therapies to help you to process your trauma and make sense of it all. Phase 3 is working towards integration and post-traumatic growth. This may include working with any remaining adaptive behaviours or traumagenic thoughts/beliefs.

Not everyone that experiences trauma goes on to develop PTSD or Complex PTSD but you may still seek support.

How is trauma therapy different to counselling? 

Trauma therapy differs to counselling as it is more directive than client led talking therapy. It is still a collaborative process in that we work together to formulate a treatment plan that helps you to achieve symptoms reduction, trauma processing and achieve your therapeutic goals. It will also include assessment, psychoeducation and homework between sessions which requires commitment from you in order for the treatment to work. Please get in touch for more information or a free 15 min consultation.

As a professional I have a duty of care to all clients to ensure I am working safely and ethically. Whether I see you face to face or online we would begin our time together going through some historical information and assessment. Prior to our first session I will send you a client history and client information sheet and several questionnaires to be completed before our first session commences. Assessment is an important part of our journey as it will help to inform our work together and ensure that I am not missing anything significant that may be contributing to your current experiencing. If there are any problems when filling in the forms, please let me know. There will also be regular assessments throughout our work together on a monthly or 6 weekly basis depending on the need, to monitor your progress and evaluate therapy goals. Certain trauma therapies also have their own built in assessments to monitor progress.

If I have any concerns before I start our work together I will arrange to have a brief telephone conversation with you. This may result in us agreeing to put together a safety plan before starting our work or I may offer information of alternative sources of support for you to make contact with whilst we also engage in therapy. On the very rare occasion that therapy is not deemed suitable, I would help you to access more suitable support in your area.

Disclaimer: Please note that I am unable to provide a clinical diagnosis as that is beyond the scope of my training. I have been trained in using several assessment tools that allow me to consider appropriate treatment pathways and inform my practice. For an official diagnosis, you would need to seek out the relevant medical professional. Please always start with your GP.  

I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) which demonstrates my commitment to their ethical framework and in providing my clients with a safe and therapeutic environment. My registration number is 381081. You can obtain a copy of the BACP ethical framework from their website at anytime and a copy of their complaints procedure should ever need it.

I am also a registered Professional Level 2 Member of the Association of Counselling & Therapy Online (ACTO). My registration number is 1237 and you can find a copy of their Professional Conduct & Code of Ethics on their website.

I have an enhanced DBS certificate which is updated regularly through the yearly update system and the organisations that I work with.

When my diary is full I operate a waiting list so please enquire as there may be space. Some of my work is time limited so wait times are usually between 6-18 weeks.  If you are looking for a specific day or time get in touch and I can give you a indication of how long you may have to wait.

I aim to build a warm, safe and non-judgemental therapeutic space where we will work together to help you understand your issues and develop self-awareness. Therapy is about creating a space that allows you to feel safe enough to talk about any difficulties or changes that you may be experiencing. My role is to walk alongside you with your difficulties to help you gain more insight, clarity and perhaps different ways of coping. This may mean asking you questions or seeking clarification, sharing resources and using a range of therapeutic tools and interventions to support and enable you in achieving your therapeutic goals. I also value feedback in general as it helps me grow into a better practitioner for you, so please feel free to let me know if you feel like I’m not understanding you or if something is not helpful.

Expressing our pain, anger, anxiety, sadness, confusion or joy etc can bring relief, however therapy also offers the possibility of transformation and growth. Seeing our difficulties and bearing witness to them can allow us to accept where we have been, where we are now and allow us to move forward towards positive change.

It is important that I make you aware that sometimes therapy can make you feel worse before you feel better which is quite a normal response to dealing with difficult emotions but something we can work through together.

Most clients feel nervous about their first therapy session which is expected and understandable and I am there to try and alleviate any worries or concerns. The first session will give you the space to talk about what brings you to therapy, what symptoms you may be experiencing and what you are aiming to get from it. It is an opportunity for me to find out more about you and your difficulties and I may ask questions. You will also have the opportunity to ask any questions. We will also go over the client and counsellor agreement which helps us to both know what to expect during our time together.

It will start by us going through some basic information and an assessment form via email. I strongly recommend that as an online client you use an encrypted email server for sending and receiving email exchanges when engaging with counselling, or communication between which helps to ensure that our communication will not be intercepted by a third party. A free and secure email provider is www.protonmail.com and my Protonmail address is: anintegratedmind@protonmail.com. All contact after our initial communication will be via this email provider.

Once we have agreed a date and time, I will send you a link inviting you to a meeting via Zoom which encrypts our session and is password protected. All you need to do is click on the link provided and zoom will install a small piece of software on your computer. You just type in the password and will be admitted to the waiting area until the allocated time.  Video counselling is a lot like face to face counselling as we can see each other’s faces but it’s not quite the same as being in a room together with the whole self.

You need to make sure that you are in a safe and private space for the full therapy hour. You are welcome to bring a soft drink to the session but please do not bring food. Although Zoom has the facility to record sessions this feature will not be used by either of us unless we have discussed it in detail beforehand. After the session you may find it helpful to choose a mindful or pleasant activity to engage in for a while to help feel more grounded in returning to the offline world.

Please note that any inappropriate behaviours or inappropriate dressing will result in the termination of the session with immediate effect.  If this should happen, I reserve the right to charge you in full for the session.

To help ensure your privacy online whilst seeking online counselling it is always advisable to use a free Protonmail account for the duration as described above in the ‘How does online counselling on Zoom work? ’ section. You can maintain your privacy by keeping your login and password for this account and making sure you log out once finished.

When accessing online therapy, you should always consider who can hear you, who might interrupt you and who might be able to see your screen if you are engaging in written communication. Please make sure for each session that you are in a safe and private space that is free from interruption to maintain confidentiality. It is important once your session is finished to ensure you have closed all internet pages that relate to our time together to maintain your privacy from others that you share your space with.

Your computer automatically keeps a history of the web pages you visit and may save other information to your computer e.g. such as downloaded files. This means others can find out which websites you have visited by looking through your computer’s history, cache file or download folder. You can clear your history or empty your cache file in your browser settings and delete downloads by locating them in the downloads file and sending them to the bin. Just make sure you also empty the bin afterwards.

It is also advisable to update your computer when prompted on a regular basis as a lot of updates hold security updates and to keep anti-virus software up to date.

We will hold regular reviews and may use screening tools (brief questionnaires) to monitor your progress. For counselling clients we will start with 6 sessions initially and review your progress from there. If we have concluded that you have got what you need from counselling then we would usually book in an ending session, see ‘reviews and endings’ tab. If we haven’t reached an ending and I felt that counselling is no longer beneficial to you then this is something I would talk to you about.

For clients seeking trauma therapy, this is something we would discuss during assessment as it is dependent upon individual progress and which treatment pathway is followed.  It is something we will continually review and discuss together. Once we conclude I offer a monthly and 3 monthly follow-up.

Everything we discuss is held in the strictest of confidence however there are a few exceptions. If I thought you were going to hurt yourself or someone else then I might need to tell someone about it. This is something I would normally try and talk with you about first. This is something we would discuss before and during our first session together and is part of the client and counsellor agreement.

The content of our sessions whether face to face or online will not be communicated with a third party except for the purposes stated in the client and counsellor agreement and the supervision of my work. I will not reveal your identity to my supervisor and the issues are discussed in a general context to help ensure that I am working ethically and safely with clients.

For online clients it is really important to maintain confidentiality when working online via video call, voice only, email or instant messaging (IM) by ensuring that you are in a room which is free from interruption by another person for the duration of our session. If this is not possible, or we become interrupted then I would have to terminate the session or reschedule.

I understand that as a client you may have used a search engine to find a therapist and will find such information about me and my work online and via my website. Please note, I do not make a search of any of my clients before meeting them, during therapy or thereafter unless I have express permission from you to do so and it was pertinent to our work

It is not permissible to record or publicise the content of our sessions whether written (email or IM) or verbal (video or voice call) or share them with a third party or other aspects of personal and public forums.

In respect of online counselling via email, IM, SMS, and webcam the UK police force and other international government authorities can ask for access to an individual’s email account or synchronous messaging account where there is suspicion of illegal activities. On this basis I am not able to guarantee confidentiality in circumstances which lead to access being granted.

I am registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ZA734483) as a Data Controller and Data Processor and maintain and store brief, factual notes relating to your sessions which are securely stored on a cloud-based customer management system called BACPAC which has the same security level as NHS services. I will not share this data with anyone else other than yourself, unless required by a court of law. Under GDPR you have the right to request a copy of your session notes. Such request will be actioned within 30 days and sent electronically. You also have the right under GDPR to ask for records to be amended if you feel they are inaccurate. If you wish to ask for an amendment or if you raise objection to any data kept by me, such objection will be stored with the original session notes. At the end of our counselling agreement copies of our exchanges to include information your full name, session dates, number of sessions, presenting issues, medical history, any suggested or used interventions, any reactions to therapy and brief therapy notes will be stored securely online for a period of 5 years then then destroyed by deletion in line with my insurance policy.

Any electronic contact (such as emails) that we have during the process of assessment and ongoing sessions will be deleted at the termination of therapy or before if it is no longer deemed relevant to our work.

Your phone number may be stored anonymously on my business phone if we engage with ‘real time ‘sessions using WhatsApp and is deleted at the end of the counselling contract. Any text messages for changes in arrangements or voicemails are deleted as soon as they have been read and actioned.

My website www.aimcounselling.co.uk is hosted by AWS (Amazon Web Services) who adhere to the requirements of GDPR.

Our relationship will remain a professional relationship as I have an ethical duty to maintain boundaries in order to provide you with a safe and confidential space. Clients can sometimes find this difficult due to the intimate nature of counselling and it is something I will always talk to you about if I thought you were struggling with it. Contact between sessions is limited to me sending you resources after a session and changes in arrangements only, unless otherwise agreed.

We will hold regular reviews, normally every sixth session to monitor your progress and agree on any further sessions. I may also ask you to fill in a brief questionnaire to help with this. You may feel you need 6 sessions or a lot more. There is no limit as such as I work with long and short term clients but we will need to have a goal or something to be working towards. If we haven’t reached an ending and I felt that counselling is no longer beneficial to you then this is something I would talk to you about.

If we have concluded that you have got what you need from counselling then we would usually book in an ending session. This is to help you consolidate everything you have learned and see how far you have come. Endings can be difficult at the best of times however in counselling I have always felt it is an important marker to show how far you have come and an important part of the next stage of your journey.

I have a limited social media presence personally and do not use social media professionally at this time. In order to maintain professional boundaries, I will not be able to accept any invitations for contact with current or past clients and I will not initiate contact with clients via social media sites or forums.

It is not permissible to record or publicise the content of our sessions whether written (email or IM) or verbal (video or voice call) or share them with a third party or other aspects of personal and public forums.

I currently work with adults and children/young people who are of secondary school age (11-18).

£70 per hour for all phases of trauma therapy including 60 minute EMDR sessions

£105 for 90 minute intensive EMDR sessions

*PLEASE NOTE I do have a concessionary rate available for those on low income or in the forces so please see the concessionary tab. 

Each session is payable 24 hours prior to your session starting. I use a secure online invoicing platform called Stripe for all payment transactions which allows me to generate invoices and send a payment link to your chosen email address.

If you have made payment for a session and are unable to meet at the appointed time without 24 hours’ notice, I will retain the fee for the session unless we are meeting online and have experienced a technological breakdown which has prevented us meeting. In this instance we will discuss how to re-arrange the scheduled appointment.

If you have not paid for the session within the 24 hour prior then I will not be able to hold that session.

I want trauma therapy to be accessible to everyone who needs it (as I have been there myself). I have a concessionary spot at a lower cost of £45 per hour for all therapies so please enquire. If this is still out of what you are able to pay due to your current circumstances then please email me for a chat. These are time-limited spaces to a maximum of 30 sessions which is enough usually for some stabilisation and one trauma process but it may involve you going on a waiting list if those spots are already occupied for a while.

Please email me for further details.

If you require me to write a brief letter to your GP or social worker then a £20 admin fee will apply providing this takes me no more than 20 minutes. If it is likely to go over that as it is a more involved report then it will be chargeable at £60 (my hourly rate). We will agree on this beforehand and payment will be required via my online invoicing system Stripe prior to me releasing the letter. Once payment is received I will then send you the requested letter/report as a PDF document.

If you need to change or cancel a session then I ask that you give me 24 hours notice as any missed sessions will normally be charged where appropriate notice has not been given.

If I need to cancel or change our session then I will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible.

If you are experiencing difficulties outside of my working hours then please visit our “I need help now” page for details of where you can find immediate support outside these times. Unfortunately, I do not offer a crisis service or support out of office hours.

I value your feedback as it helps me grow as a practitioner, so please feel free to let me know if you feel like I’m not understanding you or if something is not helpful.

If you have a complaint then I hope this is something we can discuss and work through together. If it cannot be resolved between us, then the BACP complaint procedure is available on their website www.bacp.co.uk.