Psychological Therapies & Counselling

• An initial in depth assessment giving you and your therapist the opportunity to develop an understanding of what brings you to counselling and to set clear goals and objectives for your work together
• Supportive, confidential and non- judgemental environment where you will have the opportunity to talk through your issues and develop some understanding and relief from the problems you are suffering
• You’ll meet with the same therapist, in the same location at the same time throughout your treatment

• NHS IAPT for people aged over 18 across England. Free and available to all. Access via GP or self-referral.
• IAPT in Westminster
• IAPT in Brent
• APT in Wandsworth 
• Student counselling. The vast majority of Universities, Colleges and Further Education establishments offer free counselling to students. Students aged 18 and over are also able to access NHS IAPT via their GP.

Workplace counselling

Many employers now offer Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) which can include free counselling. Anyone aged 18 and over is able to access NHS IAPT via their GP. There are also a wide range of private therapy options, some offering lower fees for those on a low wage.  

Private therapy

Choosing private therapy can mean that you start your treatment more quickly and often allows you more choice in terms of who you work with, where and when. It is important to work with an accredited therapist. The following organisations can help:

• Counselling Directory
• British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – BACP
• UK Council for psychotherapy
• Welldoing.org
• The British Psychological Society

Everyone can feel low or down from time to time, however this does not always mean something is wrong. Feeling low is common after distressing events or major life changes, but sometimes periods of low mood happen for no obvious reason. You may feel tired, lacking confidence, frustrated, angry and worried. But a low mood will often pass after a couple of days or weeks.

If you’re still feeling down or no longer get pleasure from things for most of each day and this lasts for several weeks, you may be experiencing depression. You may feel:

• sad
• worried, anxious or panicked
• tired
• a lack of self-confidence
• frustrated or irritated
• angry
• not interested in things

Or you might notice you start:

• withdrawing from your usual activities, particularly ones you used to enjoy or value
• spending less time with those you care about
• having trouble sleeping

Anxiety is what we feel when we are worried, tense or afraid – particularly about things that are about to happen, or which we think could happen in the future. Anxiety is a natural human response when we perceive that we are under threat. It can be experienced through our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations.

Physical effects include:

• a churning feeling in your stomach
• feeling light-headed or dizzy
• pins and needles
• feeling restless or unable to sit still
• headaches, backache or other aches and pains
• faster breathing
• a fast, thumping or irregular heartbeat
• sweating or hot flushes
• problems sleeping
• grinding your teeth, especially at night
• nausea (feeling sick)
• needing the toilet more or less often
• changes in your sex drive
• having panic attacks.

Effects on your mind include:

• feeling tense, nervous or unable to relax
• having a sense of dread, or fearing the worst
• feeling like the world is speeding up or slowing down
• feeling like other people can see you’re anxious and are looking at you
• feeling like you can’t stop worrying, or that bad things will happen if you stop worrying
• worrying about anxiety itself, for example worrying about when panic attacks might happen
• wanting lots of reassurance from other people or worrying that people are angry or upset with you
• worrying that you’re losing touch with reality
• rumination – thinking a lot about bad experiences, or thinking over a situation again and again
• depersonalisation – feeling disconnected from your mind or body, or like you’re watching someone else (this is a type of dissociation)
• derealisation – feeling disconnected from the world around you, or like the world isn’t real (this is a type of dissociation)
• worrying a lot about things that might happen in the future

Depression is essentially one illness. Although it has lots of different symptoms and may feel very different to different people, the term refers to a single condition.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of more specific conditions. The most prevalent of these is generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), which may affect between four and five in every 100 people in the UK. But anxiety also spans several less common conditions. These include phobias, panic disorders, adjustment disorder and stress reaction.

Yes. By working through some of the issues that are creating your anxious or depressive thoughts and feelings you can move forwards

Unfortunately, there is no magic pill or technique that will instantly fix things. Anti-depressant medication can help to reduce some of the symptoms you might be experiencing and help you to function better, however they do not remove the underlying reasons why you might be feeling this way. Talking therapies help to remove the underlying reasons. It’s possible to combine these approaches creating a two pronged attack to alleviate the symptoms and underlying causes for why you are feeling the way you do

It’s depends – everyone is different and their situation is unique.  In November 2018, NHS Digital reported a 50.8% full recovery rates for those receiving treatment. Last year, 58% of the people that we worked had recovered by the end of their treatment with us

This depends on the issues you are coming with and what you’re looking to achieve. We will match you with the most suitable type of therapy and therapist to help you with your issues

You should think about what you want to get out of therapy – what particular goals you might have. As we only offer short-term counselling, the success of the treatment is often determined by how clear the focus of the work is. People who come to us with a clear idea of what they are looking for are generally more likely to be successful

In order to hold any records on our database we need your consent.

We need this to retain some information, such as your contact details, session attendance and correspondence, to be able to treat you in the best possible way and make sure you get the help you need.

Your information is stored on a secure two factor authentication database that only authorised persons within the charity are able to access.

Those authorised persons include our administrators, service management team and your counsellor – no other persons has access to your information.

We do share some anonymised statistical data with our funders. This information cannot be tracked back to individuals.

We do inform your GP that you are in treatment with us and when your treatment with us ends – they are our partners in your care and so we need to let them know when we are no longer treating you.

In situations where it is necessary we might contact other organisations involved in your care, however we would only do this with your consent and we will inform you that we are doing so.

There are three cases in which we are legally obliged to break confidentiality. These are when:

• you might be at risk to yourself or others
• There is suspicion that a child or adult is being sexually, physically, emotionally abused or neglected, or is at risk of such abuse
• a valid court order is issued for case records

No, unfortunately we do not have the option to offer counselling in any language other than English