Judith Macdonald-Lawson BSc PG Dip MBACP (Accred) UKRCP

About me

I am a very experienced BACP accredited counsellor and psychotherapist who specialises in working with couples at all stages of their relationship. I worked for Relate for 10 years as a senior couples counsellor, family counsellor, psychosexual therapist and young persons' counsellor, and I have recently trained as a family mediator with the Family Mediation Association. I have been working in private practice for 6 years.
The services I offer clients adhere to the BACP Code of Ethical Practice, and are confidential.

• Relationship Counselling provides help for couples who are experiencing difficulties in their relationship, whether arising from the relationship itself, or from other external factors. Couples are encouraged to explore their problems in a safe, impartial conversation, to improve understanding of why these problems are occurring, and how to make changes. If you are parents who are arguing a lot, your children will be aware these tensions; ultimately they too will benefit from your counselling.

• Separating Parents are sessions to help couples who have decided to end their relationship. During this difficult transition, which will be painful for you all, decisions need to be taken about how to tell the children, who moves out and when, what arrangements will be made for your children to see you both, as well as helping your children with their fears. Several sessions with an experienced couples counsellor can help you to negotiate some of these issues; you may be signposted to other sources of support.
• Family Consultancy is a service to support couples who choose to negotiate their divorce through either family mediation or collaborative law. Couples may find that having emotional support, either together or separately, can help with the painful process of making decisions about child arrangements, property and finance. Some collaborative lawyers choose to work with family consultants as part of the negotiating process.
• Family Mediation is a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution leading to separation and divorce, providing couples with the chance to make their own decisions about child arrangements, property and finance. Couples meet with the mediator who can help them discuss the future in a constructive and respectful way. Family mediation is voluntary, less costly and less lengthy than adversarial court proceedings, and it is more likely that separating parents will be able to maintain more effective communication after separation and divorce.