Frequently Asked Questions
How much is individual therapy?
Sessions cost £110 for a 60 minute appointment.
Do you offer reduced rate sessions?
I am unable to offer individual therapy sessions at a reduced rate. However, I run compassion focused therapy groups which are more financially accessible and are designed specifically for individuals who have experienced trauma, difficulties in their early years and challenging life events.
The group runs for 12 sessions. Each group session is £40 and you will need to commit to attending the full course.
What are your payment terms?
Payment is required within 48 hours of arranging your appointment to secure your booking. Payment details will be included on your invoice. If payment has not been received within 48 hours, unfortunately, I am unable to hold your appointment for you.
What is your cancellation policy?
If you cancel within 48 hours of your appointment, the full session fee will be charged. If you cancel outside of the 48 hour period, then your session fee can fund another booking with me.
What appointments times do you have available?
I have daytime appointments available Tuesday to Thursday. My last appointment of the day is at 4.30pm.
Do you work with Health Insurance Companies?
I am registered with BUPA and I am able to explore working with other providers if you have health insurance and would like to work with me.
If your sessions are being funded via your insurance company then I will arrange the session fee with your insurer and invoice them directly. If there is an excess to pay, this needs to be paid in full by you prior to treatment starting. Ensure you have established the terms of your policy so you know how many sessions have been funded and if the sessions will be affected by the policy renewal date.
If you cancel your session within 48 hours of the appointment, the full session fee will be charged to you directly in an invoice, as insurance companies do not fund cancellations.
How much are diagnostic assessments?
I offer diagnostic assessments for PTSD, C-PTSD and Dissociative Disorders. The assessment process takes up to three hours, charged at my hourly rate of £110 per hour. Report writing will take up to three hours and is charged at my hourly rate. I will let you know how long the report writing process will take once the assessment is complete.
How much is group therapy?
I offer a 12 session compassion focused therapy group which is tailored for individuals who have experienced trauma and had very difficult times in their life. This group is £40 per session. If you would like to attend the group you will need to make a commitment to the complete 12 session course.
Where do you offer sessions?
Sessions are either held in my therapy room on a farm in Lea, which is near to Ross on Wye, Herefordshire or online via Zoom, where you can relax in the comfort of your own home.
Do you offer walk and talk sessions?
Yes, my therapy room is set on 52 acres of beautiful private farmland and is the ideal place for a walk and talk session, if this suits your needs. You may choose a walk and talk session because you find it easier to talk in a less formal setting, you feel calmer outdoors or because you are concerned about spending time indoors with me due to Covid-19. Please come prepared with suitable footwear and a coat for walking through fields and on uneven ground.
Walk and talk is weather dependent and if we are unable to walk because of the weather, our sessions would move to zoom or the phone.
Is your therapy room accessible?
My therapy room is a short distance from the A40 which is on a bus route from Ross on Wye and Gloucester. If you are a car driver, there is parking on the road side a short distance from my therapy room. There are steps into my therapy room, so unfortunately it is not accessible with a wheelchair.
How frequently can I see you and how long does therapy last?
We can discuss the frequency of sessions when you attend for your initial meeting with me. Weekly sessions tend to lead to the fastest and most consistent changes in your life. For some work, such as sessions focusing on processing trauma memories, it is important for us to see each other weekly to help you manage the feelings that arise. Often as the final stages of therapy approach, it might be helpful for sessions to be less frequent, giving you the opportunity to practice using the skills you have learnt without such frequent support.
Some people cannot afford weekly sessions and so sessions take place fortnightly to accommodate this. I do not recommend my approach for people who are looking for less frequent appointments.
The length of therapy varies greatly from person to person depending on their goals and the complexity of their difficulties. We can discuss this in the early stages of our work together.
Do you offer support outside of appointments?
I am unable to provide urgent contact outside of our appointments if you are in crisis. If you would like to book an additional appointment or telephone call for extra support during times of distress then I will accommodate this where I have availability, during my working hours. If you need urgent contact outside of our appointments then you can call your GP or attend A&E. If emotional crises are likely for you then we can spend time together working on a plan for how you can look after yourself and get help during these difficult times.
Are sessions confidential?
The information you share with me is confidential, which means that I will keep it private. The only time I may need to break your confidentiality is if I have any concerns about risks to you or risks to other people. If possible, I will speak to you about the need to break confidentiality and discuss how this information is shared.
I have professional supervision, as required of every psychologist to maintain standards of care, where I discuss my work with another clinical psychologist. I will not share any identifiable information about you with my supervisor.
I have a therapeutic will, whereby a colleague will be given access to your details to contact you in the event of an emergency.
When might you need to break confidentiality?
If I was concerned about risks to you, I might need to break confidentiality. This might be a risk that you pose to yourself through self harming or trying to end your life and in this case I might need to speak to your GP, advise you to go to A&E or call an ambulance for you.
If I was concerned about a risk that someone else posed towards you, for example if you let me know that someone was physically hurting you or someone else, then I might need to make a referral to safeguarding or speak with the police.
In all of these circumstances I would speak to you about my need to break confidentiality before I did so, unless sharing this information with you would put you or someone else at further risk of harm.
Reports and Liaison
If you work with other professionals it is really beneficial if we are able to support you as a team. Therefore, it will be helpful for us to discuss liaison with other team members. We can think together about what information you would like me to share and I am happy to do this in writing, online or on the telephone. The time taken for these roles will be charged at £110 per hour.
At times it might be necessary for me to share information with your team if I am concerned about risks to you or other people. I would like us to discuss this first and come to an agreement about how I share this information and with whom.
What is Schema Therapy?
Schema Therapy was developed to expand the concepts and interventions offered by CBT, as CBT has not provided effective tools to treat individuals who have more chronic or complex difficulties. Schema Therapy integrates elements from different schools of therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral, attachment, Gestalt, psychoanalytic therapy, and others.
Schema Therapy takes into account thoughts and emotions that hide beneath awareness. It places a huge emphasis on the therapist-patient relationship: the therapist actively meets the patient’s emotional needs and fosters change.
Even though Schema Therapy utilises some CBT approaches and techniques, it does so in a less structured way, and it relies more on emotion focused techniques including imagery rescripting and mode work with chairs. Compared to CBT, Schema Therapy places a greater emphasis on emotional needs, attachment, interpersonal relationships, and the development of psychological problems in early childhood and adolescence.
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
What is Compassion Focused Therapy?
Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) looks to help those who struggle with shame and self-criticism. Often these can be the driving forces behind other mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
The approach was founded by Paul Gilbert, a clinical psychologist. It is considered an integrative therapy as it uses tools from other psychotherapies. It also uses research and tools from Buddhism, neuroscience and evolutionary therapy. CFT looks at helping you consciously develop your ability to be more compassionate towards both yourself and others.
The founder of CFT, Paul Gilbert, noticed that many of his clients suffered from very high levels of self-criticism and shame. He found that just cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) alone didn’t seem to help. While they gained a better understanding of their thinking patterns and how these affected behaviour, essentially it didn’t make them feel better.
Gilbert discovered that they needed tools to help soothe themselves too. So, he developed compassion-focused therapy - an approach to help create a positive emotional response for those who were dealing with low self-worth. The therapy can be used alone, but it can also be used alongside other therapy types, adding another layer of support.
What is the difference between a counsellor, clinical psychologist and psychiatrist?
There is a really helpful description of the differences between these professions here.
What is your covid-19 policy?
I am currently offering face to face appointments in a room with ventilation which is large enough for us to socially distance. Please wear a mask when you arrive at your appointment and we can discuss removing masks when we are seated and if you feel comfortable and safe to do so. I sanitise and ventilate the room between appointments.
If you are asked to isolate, a member of your household is asked to isolate or you have any covid symptoms please inform me as soon as possible and we will arrange for our session to take place via zoom or on the phone, as long as you are well enough to engage with the session.
If you feel unsafe meeting with me in my therapy room due to Covid-19 and you would like a face to face session, then we can walk and talk in our private farmland, weather dependent. If we are unable to walk because of the weather, our sessions would move to zoom or the phone.