What Is Counselling About?
Many people are unclear what to expect from counselling. Counselling is a process which may help you to make choices or decisions about you and your life. Our counsellors at Safe Space are professionally trained to a high level and are working either as volunteers or as a student placement, having reached a sufficient level in their training.
Your counsellor will work with you to:
- More fully understand your present situation.
- Explore new ways of making changes in your life.
- Build confidence and self esteem.
- Resolve problems that interfere with you making and maintaining relationships.
- Develop a greater sense of personal freedom.
- Develop strengths and coping skills.
Your counsellor will listen to you and encourage you to talk about the things that are important to you, without judging you. The aim is to help you become clearer about your feelings and consider possible solutions to the difficult things in your life, but your counsellor will not tell you what to do or take action for you. They will help you work towards solutions that you feel will work for you.
What it Isn't About
- Giving you ‘advice’.
- Telling you ‘what to do’.
- Judging you.
- Your counsellor imposing solutions on you.
- Minimising, rejecting, or questioning what you want to discuss.
- Your counsellor being able to solve your problems for you.
- Your counsellor ‘talking for you’.
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Sessions are 50 minutes long, known as the therapeutic hour. Sessions usually take place weekly, as far as possible at the same time and place.
The sessions usually take place at the Eve Centre, 36, Bentinck Rd, Nottingham, NG7 4AF. We do use other venues including Nottingham Counselling Centre and the Wellbeing Hub. Please note that if you wish to be seen at Nottingham Counselling service, a room hire charge of £5.00 applies.
The initial assessment will generally be carried out at the Eve Centre and your venue preference can be discussed with the assessor.
The service is provided free of charge. However, as Safe Space receives no funding, we ask that, if you are able, you make donations towards the cost of the service. Donations help us to keep going, even if it is only a minimal amount you can afford to pay.
We offer an initial 12 sessions to establish whether counselling is for you. Your situation will be reviewed towards the end of the 12 weeks. If you and your counsellor feel all is going well, there is no limit to the number of sessions that can be provided. Every 12 weeks you and your counsellor will review your progress.
Yes, you can specify any preferences in this respect. Meet the team…
We have volunteers who are fully qualified to Diploma, Batchelor or Masters degree level. We also have trainees who have reached a level of their training where they have been certified by their training organisation as being competent to work with clients.
Some of our volunteers are in Private Practice as well as volunteering with Safe Space
All counsellors attend Continuing Professional Development events and have external supervision to continually develop their practice.
See the section on ‘Meet the Team’ for more information about individual counsellors.
In the first instance we would hope that you try to resolve any concerns with your counsellor yourself in sessions. If this is not possible then you can discuss this with Director, Alison Cooney on 07742022443. There is an official complaints procedure in place if needed.
All the information we have about you on either paper or computer records are General Data Protection Regulations compliant. None of your contact details will ever be shared with a third party without your consent.
Everything you tell your counsellor is in strict confidence. At the initial assessment you will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. No information will be shared without your express consent. The only exceptions to this are if you are considered to be a severe risk to yourself or others. In this case there is a duty of care to share the information with other professionals. Wherever possible the need to disclose information will be discussed with you.
Only if it was an absolute emergency would disclosure be made without your knowledge.
