About me
We know how daunting it can feel sending that enquiry to reach out about counselling. Please rest assured that when we hear from you, there is no judgement, no assumptions and no pressure. Counselling is for everyone, not just for people in crisis. Whether you as an adult, or your teenager want to learn more about yourself, find patterns from your past and/or present life, or work on specific areas of life that are or have been a struggle to manage, understand or move forward with.
We are all human and we dip in and out of counselling ourselves, as life can be difficult for everyone at times. When else do we get to spend an hour working through everything going on in our minds and in our hearts- knowing that it is confidential, that you're being truly listened to, and helped by a professional to make steps in a forward direction? From our perspective, counselling is a huge form of self-care. We invest in our physical health as a society all of the time; our mental health deserves the same time and priority.
If you are an adult looking for counselling, you will get a reply from Sue to open up communication together. If you are reaching out about your teenager (age 9-18), you will hear back from Mel.
We are registered members of a professional body. We're highly qualified and work by strong ethical standards. We have robust policies and procedures, fully DBS checked and fully insured. We offer sessions that are truly personalised to your needs and experiences.
We are integrative counsellors which means we use a range of different theories and strategies that best suit you from our years of training and ever on-going up-skilling. We dedicate time even outside of sessions to researching and thinking about the best ways to help you on your wellbeing journey.
See below areas that we can help you with so that you have more of an idea about whether you think we can support you:
Sue- Adult Specialist (currently space for 1 new client):
Boundaries, Anxiety, Depression, Loss of Self, Loss of Purpose, Confidence and Self-Esteem, Emotional Regulation, Relationship Challenges and Dynamics, Hurt and Anger, Sleep and Insomnia, Grief and Loss, Career Issues, Identity/ Sexuality/ Gender, Neurodiversity, Body Image, Intrusive Thoughts, Divorce, Stress, Traumatic Life Experiences and more.
Mel-Teenage Specialist (currently full at the moment):
Neurodiversity, Self-Esteem, Bullying, Identity/ Sexuality/ Gender, Life Transitions, Confidence, Anxiety, Depression, Friendships, Emotional Regulation, Body Image, Academic Challenges, Grief and Loss, Traumatic Life Experiences, OCD and Intrusive Thoughts, Self Harm, Challenging Behaviour, Co-Parenting, Fostering/ Adoption Challenges, Stress, Family Dynamics, Divorce, Fertility Issues and/or Miscarriage, Child Loss, Pregnancy and Postpartum anxiety/ depression and more.
We're hear to help you and we'd love to hear from you.
Training, qualifications & experience
We have over 35 years of experience & training between us, specialising in a huge range of challenges that come up in life:
- Registered members of BACP (B)
- Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (B)
- Level 5 Diploma in CBT Skills and Theory (S)
- Achology Accredited CBT Practitioner Course (M)
- Certificate in Counselling proficiency with BACP (S)
- Yearly updated Safeguarding Training and GDPR including The Prevent Duty, Domestic Abuse, Safeguarding Young People, Equality & Diversity, Suicide Awareness & Prevention and Self-Harm (B)
- BA QTS in Teaching Specialising in Neurodiversity (M)
- Level 1 Reiki and Indian Head Massage (S)
- Plus a huge range of on-going CPD courses and workshops across a huge range of other mental health and wellbeing issues (B)
We have also worked in the following services over the years:
- DIAS - Counselling individuals who have been affected by domestic violence (S)
- Childrens' Centres- Working with families who have faced any difficulties that were affecting their lives (S)
- Teacher of vulnerable children and teenagers (M)
- Foster & Adoption Service- Working closely in improving relationships (S)
- Assistant SENDCo of a large secondary school (M)
- Family Talk Time Project- One to one intervention in working with families who were experiencing conflict in all areas of their lives (S)
- Whole school mental health development and trust wide community consultant (M)
- Charity setting - Offering counselling within the local community for Individuals and their families (S)
- Early Intervention- Working with services in the community to improve the lives of individuals (S)
- Working across schools to develop understanding and improvement of SEND provisions (M)
- Delivering parenting courses and group work on identified topics (B)
- Pastoral Lead in a College setting (S)
- Private counselling practice on any individual issues (B)
- Family Learning (B)
With both our training, work and also life experiences, we can help create change together.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£45.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
The cost of sessions is £45 per session for the first six sessions. We can offer a discount if you continue on with further sessions.
Clients pay as you go before each session, with payment being required by the day before each of your scheduled appointments.
We do also offer discounts if you receive income support. We hope you feel comfortable to ask us about this when you get in touch, or we can discuss it during our initial phone call too.
Take a look at our website if you'd like to see more of what we do:
www.themerseysidefamilycounsellors.co.uk
When I work
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Further information
After reaching out, if we have space at that time to work with you, we will offer to give you a phone call to get to know about you and your situation a little more, and explain to you how the process of starting sessions together works.
You can then take some time to make a decision, with no pressure attached. If you do go ahead with sessions, we work flexibly to your needs and always ensure to check in about whether you are ready for therapy to come to an end, move to less often or continue as you are.
Don't hold yourself back from dropping us an enquiry, we can have a chat and if we feel we can help you, and you feel we are the right therapist for you, we can move forward together from there.
