Christopher Stafford

Hello and thanks for finding me and my therapy services.

I'm Christopher Stafford and I am counselling psychotherapist and you are warmly welcomed to my private Counselling and Psychotherapy practice based in the very heart of Liverpool City Centre and online.

I work with individuals aged 16+ Couples and Families therapeutically.

I very much hope I that am the right match for you as a therapist to begin your personal therapeutic journey in a safe, experienced and warm accepting space centred fully on you as an individual, couple or family.

My profile may seem quite detailed to you but as you have taken that first step in considering therapy, I do feel that it is important for me to be open, honest and transparent with you about what psychotherapeutic approaches I work with and I can therefore offer, my qualifications and experience. Hopefully this will provide you with more information towards accessing private therapy with me.

Currently in person therapy sessions are currently available in:

**Liverpool City Centre (L2 0NR) **

**Online Sessions - available nationwide**

I am an experienced (over 3000 client therapeutic hours) therapist. This is my full time career and I am dedicated and committed to providing informed therapy to support all my clients with their individual needs.

I offer both short and long term therapy to young people, adults and couples.

The profession of counselling and psychotherapy for me has always been such a joy to be apart of and I have always retained the same motivation and energy to accompany my clients on their personal therapeutic journeys' as I had offered in my very first session with a client. I truly enjoy the rich work with clients and observing  their progress towards growth and resolution in their own lives. Healing and acceptance of the unacceptable can be a powerful observation and to be able to facilitate such spaces is truly inspires my continued focused in this work.

I have thousand's of counselling hours experience working within a diverse range of life experiences, emotional and mental health needs. One of my key specialist areas of therapeutic work is supporting clients who have experienced trauma, abuse and addictive patterns of behaviour within their lifespan. 

All of my qualifications are counselling and psychotherapeutic related and they are noted on my profile with transparency as I believe when clients are paying privately for therapy, they should be fully informed of the level of qualification the therapist has attained in the counselling professions to ensure they are highly qualified and experienced in their field and specialist areas. I am qualified far beyond the minimum entry level of qualification required to practice as a counsellor in the UK and hold a first class BSc degree.

My fees reflect this advanced qualification and the training I have completed to specialise and to practice as a counsellor. My fees also reflect  that sessions will take place in a beautiful high specification central city centre private counselling practice that is privately rented and is not my home.

It is a neutral space for us both.

I am experienced in working with a range of mental health conditions / illnesses and various life transitions and adverse life experiences in private practice, charitable, public sectors and medical settings.

I truly understand that life can be painful, unpredictable, cruel even at times and we can often lose a sense of our personal meaning and identity as we navigate ourselves through this world and the experiences we have endured to survive and function. Losing our purpose and therefore feeling "stuck" can lead to many differing negative emotions and thoughts influencing the quality of our living years. I believe our emotional 'unfinished business' - what we have not expressed in relation to life experiences can have an acute affect on our present day selves. Finding a way to express the unexpressed can be freeing.

I wholeheartedly believe that human beings can grow past emotional distress to become more self accepting of the unacceptable and move from just existing to living with a renewed sense of personal peace. I understand that the unimaginable really does happen to us and we often don't talk about it for many years later. This is very true for abuse and trauma experienced in childhood for example  I appreciate wholeheartedly that doing so can be incredibly difficult and painful yet this is where the safe therapy space I offer can help you to find resolve.

It can be overwhelming to be living a life that doesn't feel like it belongs to you.  Emotionally this can result in anxiety, depression and sadness. We can often feel "stuck" that life is happening around us - but we are not part of it in the way we would prefer to.

You may be experiencing a constant cycle of thoughts that are hurting and punishing you - leading to feelings of emptiness, sadness, feeling lost, alone and preferring to feel differently in your life.

As an integrative counsellor, I provide a safe therapeutic space, which is client led, always working at your pace to support you in exploring your thoughts, feelings and experiences with me. My aim is to always to get as close as I can to my client's world to understand how it truly feels to be them so we can work together - so you can find a way to move forward in the direction you choose in your life.

I tailor and individualise my therapeutic approach to ensure your unique life experiences are warmly accepted whether you attend individual or couples sessions.

Respect and empathy towards you are firmly embedded in my counselling practice, enabling me to really hear and be present with you and the uniqueness of the experience you bring.

I offer to accompany you on a very personal, and often difficult journey, with the knowledge and ability that I can hold a safe therapeutic space for you to explore safely without the fear of judgement or rejection.

I have advanced training in areas such as:

Sexual Abuse

Domestic Violence

Childhood Trauma and Abuse

Self-Identity 

Shame

Attachment Issues  Depression PTSD and chemsex. 

LGBTQIA+ Experiencing

Sex and Sex related issues

Chronic Illness and Life Limiting Illness

I am fully inclusive therapist who advocates Equality for all as a standard.

Updated -  6/4/2024

Liverpool City Centre - I have current availability for face-to-face sessions

Nationwide Online Sessions are now available but limited

No matter which platform you choose for us to meet for your counselling journey, my commitment to you is to provide a counselling environment which is centred around you. This is your time to explore what is important to you, what has been troubling you and for you to express how it actually feels to be you in this world with your own life experiences. I will be ready to hear your feelings, thoughts and experiences that you have chosen to bring along to our sessions, for you to choose a way forward to live the life you truly want.

That first step to understanding ourselves and deepening our self-awareness can be an unsure and apprehensive  one. As human beings we can forget about our own needs in this life, especially if we have put other's wants of us  and needs before our own for so long.  This often can feel like we have lost connection with our true self, and we may need to discover who we truly are and what we actually want from life and our relationships.

Having a therapeutic space which is truly yours to be fully heard, accepted and without any demands on you can be incredibly empowering.

Finally, I am a fully insured therapist who is also registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) to ensure I am fully compliant with storage of any data within my work. I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP). I have advanced my core counselling training and qualification to BSc (First Class Hons) standard to ensure I am able to offer varied therapeutic interventions, so you receive the optimum experience from your therapy. 

**Getting started with me as your Therapist**

Firstly, just drop me a call or an email to arrange an initial consultation call to answer any of your questions regarding your counselling with me. The initial consultation call would be a 25 minute telephone or video call and the fee for this is £25

After this if you decide to choose to work with me, we can arrange our first counselling session at a suitable time for us both and at your preferred location.

I will then send over via email confirmation of your first appointment with me, with full details regarding location, parking, public transport links and arrival information.

I will also attach our counselling contract to this email which will provide you with further information of how counselling with me will work. It will outline confidentiality in counselling, how I will store your data, my fees, how to make payment and my cancellation policy. I will ask you to read the counselling contract, complete all client sections and sign electronically and return to me before our first session. If this is not possible and you are choosing to have face to face counselling with me then we can sign a paper copy together at our first session. If you have any questions regarding any of the above, then you will of course be invited to discuss this with me.

At your first session we will initially review the counselling contract to ensure all your questions are answered.  Once I have obtained your informed consent to proceed, we will then begin our therapeutic journey together which will start with our first session being an explorative one for me to understand how life has been and is for you.

This is your counselling, your space to explore openly to find the resolve you are looking for.

We will review our sessions regularly. You are free to end your counselling journey whenever it feels right for you. 

I very much look forward to hearing from you.

In the meantime, look after "you"

www.chris-stafford-counselling.co.uk

Face to Face Counselling:

Initial Telephone Consultation (25mins) £25.00

This an opportunity to explore the reasons for you wishing to access therapy and for me to find a little more  out about you as an individual or couple and of course for you to ask any questions. This will allow me to advise on what I can offer to support you in therapy and to decide if we would like to work together in a therapeutic relationship.

£60.00 - £70.00 per 60 - minutes Individual in person Therapy Session in Liverpool City Centre.

£85.00 to £95.00 per 60 - minutes Couples in person Therapy Session Liverpool City Centre

Online Counselling (Remote): £65.00 per 60 - minutes session (Nationwide)

Theoretical Approaches that I tailor to your counselling.

Person Centred Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

Narrative Theory

Transactional Analysis

Compassion Focused

Trauma Focused

Gestalt Theory