Annmarie Hoey

Welcome! You must be considering some support while you deal with whatever difficult feelings, anxieties, relationships, mental health issues or life events brought you to this site. I understand. These are brave steps to take.

Hopefully I can help you. I am an Integrative Counsellor working with young people, adults, individuals and couples. So I can support you therapeutically with Person Centred Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Transactional Analysis or the best combination for you. I also offer Mindfulness and breath-work.

I work face to face with clients in premises at the heart of Durham city centre, in Sunderland and Jesmond, Newcastle.

I offer online counselling sessions and telephone sessions.

I also offer walking and talking therapy. This is a way of having sessions outdoors in naturally beautiful coastal paths or parks. 

Please call if you have any questions, or to book your first session.

£58.50 - £70

Payment by bank transfer needs to be made in advance of the session.

I operate a 24 hour cancellation fee.

THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

Everyone has their own thoughts about what therapy means for them and which therapeutic approach is best for them. There are many therapeutic approaches. However, the relationship you have with your therapist will determine how successful these approaches will be; if you trust your therapist knows what they are doing, is an ethical practitioner, is committed to you, is warm, accepting, caring, non-judgmental and shows empathy with you and actively listens - then you're likely to feel you can talk to them freely. You often trust your therapist with some of your most intimate and painful thoughts, feelings and experiences. This is the importance of the professional therapeutic relationship. It is there to protect you while you are vulnerable and healing in order to keep you safe and respected unconditionally.

You will want to know that working with me feels like a good fit for you. If after the first phone-call or first session you don't feel that working with me is the answer for you then you can end there and then.

The therapeutic relationship isn't like other relationships you will have experienced. It isn't a friendship although it can feel like it. To protect both client and counsellor, and to respect the importance of ethical practice, the therapeutic relationship has professional boundaries. For instance, there is no contact outside of the sessions other than to arrange appointments. You will decide whether or not to acknowledge each other outside of the session if ever there was a chance meeting. Once the sessions end, therapists and clients do not maintain informal contact. However, my door is always open to clients who wish to restart therapy at any point.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?

I offer long-term and short-term therapy. In Private Practice we have the luxury of tailoring the number of sessions to suit you. One or two sessions might be all you need or want. If you want to work in greater depth, on something more complex, or something that goes further into your past, then you may require longer.

We start with a contract so that you are clear about what you can expect from my service and so that we can both agree to this way of working. During the contracting we discuss what you want to get from therapy, and decide how many sessions you need initially. We set a review date, at which point we can revise goals and timescales as appropriate. At any point you are free to end your sessions.

Confidentiality

This is very important for therapeutic practice. You will work with me in a secure safe space where you can be assured that whatever you share with me in therapy will remain totally confidential. There are some exceptions. I would be obliged to take action if I had concerns about criminal acts such as terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking. Likewise for the purposes of child protection or if I was concerned you were going to do serious harm to yourself or others. I would discuss these safeguarding actions with you first in any case.

Your privacy is also very important. New data protection legislation came into effect on 25th May 2018. This requires that you are aware of the information I keep about you. I only keep this information with your consent and you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You also have the right to correct wrong data or restrict certain processing.

Identity Details

I will hold your name and contact details in a locked cabinet.

If you call me on my mobile I will assume I can save your number for future calls, while you are my client, unless you advise me otherwise.

I will never share your details with a third party.

I will only use your first name and the initial of your surname for my accounts, which I need to hold for tax purposes. Should HMRC ever want to investigate me, you will not be identifiable. If you pay me by bank transfer, do please change your reference if you have any concerns.

Emails

You may share personal information about yourself in an email to me. I will store this on a separate folder on my system and delete it when your counselling with me comes to an end.

Session Notes

I will store these separate from your identity details. They will be in the form of brief handwritten notes. They act as an aide memoire for me, and for professional supervision purposes. They are kept securely in a locked cabinet.

Sharing of Information

Information about your session may be shared in the following circumstances:

• With a supervisor to help me with the process, but your anonymity will be maintained
• If you give me information that suggests that significant harm may come to you or a minor
• If it is required by a Court of Law
• If you give me information I am required to communicate by law ( eg Acts of Terrorism)

The information shared will be no more than necessary for the specific purpose. If I write any reports or letters on your behalf, I will check with you, in advance, for your agreement before sending.

As we commence therapy, I will require your signed consent to the above and for me having your email and telephone number on my password protected devices such as my laptop and phone.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SERVICES I OFFER

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

This approach aims to help you change the way you think (cognition) so that you can change what you do (behaviour). Generally, CBT focuses on current problems rather than past causes. Working with your therapist, CBT helps you to work out practical solutions to help you feel better now.

When we think about things negatively we tend to experience negative feelings and emotions; this doesn't feel good. It can lead us into unhelpful, negative and unhealthy behaviours. Working together we can identify and challenge these negative thoughts and devise ways to check and change them. When you think more positively, you experience more positive emotions and feelings and your behaviour helps you live your life in a more positive and healthy way.

CBT can be helpful for depression, anxiety, stress, phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and managing long-term conditions.

Person Centred Therapy

For me, this is the bed-rock to successful therapy because it puts you the client at the heart of the process and works on the premise that everyone has the capacity and desire for personal growth and change - so long as they are given the right conditions. The therapeutic relationship offers those conditions which are collaborative not directive. The three core conditions of the Person Centred approach are always a given:

unconditional positive regard for the client empathy with the client congruence - being real and honest with the client.

As a person centred therapist I am trained to use 'your expertise in you' alongside my expertise in psychological and therapeutic theory, plus my counselling skills to support you to make the positive changes you want, and for you to develop in your own way.

Transactional Analysis (TA)

I took an additional qualification in this approach at Manchester Institute of Psychotherapy because I find TA has a lot to offer humans who are suffering with issues about self-esteem, self-belief, relationships, family, communication, working on issues from childhood or growing up. It can help you to go deeper into how you became who you are currently. It can help you to understand and own the changes you want to make to your ‘life-script’.

TA is a very comprehensive approach which incorporates aspects of humanistic, cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapies. It is a model of human personality and looks at how human beings relate to each other. TA has three states for the personality, Parent, Adult and Child. Knowing about these states in your own context helps you understand how you interact with others. It can give you a new sense of personal power.

TA helps you to interpret your beliefs and your view of the world around you. It helps you to see how these beliefs about yourself and the world around you have created recurring problems for you. TA helps you to gain insights into the way you see yourself and how you respond to people. TA gives you much greater understanding of yourself and how you want your life to be.

Coaching

This is very different to counselling. It is conversation based and I make it structured, once we have had our initial consultation, information mining and goal setting. It will feel as though you are heading in the direction you have chosen. It will also involve some interactive work. Coaching can help you to work towards solutions to a work, life or relationship problems. It helps you to devise a clear, critical path through a project or challenge.

My approach to coaching is to help you to recognise and build on your strengths. Coaching can help you to become better at self-management, to have greater self-awareness, positivity and effectiveness. It can support you to make changes in the here and now or for the longer-term.

Coaching has many highly effective models. I will select the specific model which I think is suited to you. I may integrate some therapeutic approaches if they would be helpful for you. Regardless of the approach, clients often say that they feel lighter and more motivated after coaching; with strategies to take away and put into practice. Coaching is empowering, it can make you feel confident. It can help you to get in touch with your own personal efficacy and the version of yourself you most want to be.

Mindfulness

This is very current but mindfulness has ancient roots. Mindful practice requires exactly that - practice. It can help you to recognise the busy, relentless and intrusive nature of thoughts. Mindfulness helps you to hit the pause button and just be in the moment. You can take your mindful practice into many areas of your life and you can have specific times in your day when you practice. Practice involves being aware of your breath, being in the present and noticing thoughts but letting them be. Your experience of daily life can be enriched by ongoing practice.

Moments of stress and mental fatigue can be alleviated by mindfulness there and then, but ongoing practice can have far-reaching effects on your mood, stress-levels, sleep, enjoyment of life. I can show you mindfulness methods, how to develop your practice. I can do mindfulness practice with you in our sessions. This can be whatever feels comfortable for you: from short breathing exercises and individual mindfulness exercises to longer relaxation sessions and training for you so that you can practice mindfulness out of the session and incorporate it into your daily life.