Sally Mays MBACP Counsellor/Supervisor PG Dip Counselling (M) Exeter University

NB Please note my mobile 'phone is currently not available - it is damaged. So if you want to contact me, please use my email address. Thank you.

In these strange and difficult times, I am offering my services at a reduced/negotiable price owing to the telephone or Zoom/Skype nature of any contact. I am open to having an initial chat on the telephone to establish the issues for which a client is seeking help, and also to negotiate how the contact will take place.

I understand how much courage it requires to take the initial plunge in seeking help, at the best of times. If confidence has been knocked, or a persistent anxiety has led to depression, it is then that a trained listening ear can provide a positive first step. Such issues may well be exacerbated by concerns related to the current coronavirus crisis. Voicing fears, and working towards a healthier approach to life and its challenges, is what many need right now, but also at different points in life generally. Now, more than ever, we may reflect on what our existence has been, and look forward to a future in which life becomes what we would most like it to be.

I have a particular interest in women-centred practice, working with a warmth that aims to put clients at their ease from the first contact. I believe it is important to go at a client's own pace, using gentle encouragement to allow self expression, as we work together towards aims, however basic. I hope to give people tools to enable them to help themselves more in the future, but will not apply pressure for any particular method to achieve this goal, as everyone is different and needs to find their own way with recovery.

I am registered with the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) and worked for many years in the field of mental health. I practise principally within a person-centred/humanistic framework, but incorporate other therapeutic principles as appropriate.

An exploratory chat is always helpful before commencing the counselling, and to establish whether or not both client and counsellor feel that to go ahead would be constructive for the client. (You are invited to leave a message or text with your telephone number on my mobile 'phone … temporarily unavailable, have damaged 'phone) Alternatively you can email me (please use my email address to contact me, thank you). Whichever method you choose, I will respond promptly.

I am normally flexible in terms of location, and use rooms in Okehampton regularly. At the moment I am, of course, working from home.

I am also a trained and practising counselling supervisor - see separate profile on this site.