Person-Centred Counselling & Psychotherapy
When your story is ready to be told, at your pace, in your own way, to be witnessed, held & understood.
Your space to be heard, your space to be known.
To be heard is healing, to be understood is to be cared for. To be supported in navigating our path is to step onto a journey of understanding and into the possibility of change.
Hireth Counselling & Therapy can hold your story, honour your experience with grace, with kindness & without judgement as you navigate your path.
Counselling & Therapy at Hireth Medicine
Starting therapy is a journey we don’t always feel ready to start out on. We may feel that it’ll make things worse, or that we’ll end up lost if we start to self-reflect. What if we say something ‘crazy’? What if we don’t make any sense and someone judges us?
But sometimes we know we need a change, a guide through an internal tangle or some help from a trained, experienced therapist. And that’s what Hireth Counselling and therapy offers. With the reassurance that you pick the pace, share what you’re ready to, and only when you’re ready to.
Person-Centred Counselling is a place where we connect without judgements, without an agenda, and with space to explore and develop understanding together. We come together in connection whilst your own innate insights reveal themselves to you.
Pondering some Counselling & Therapy questions?
If you have a question about Counselling & Therapy, you may find the answer here. If you don’t, pop me a message and I’ll do my best to help you.
A few of these subjects are explored further over on my Blog, so do check that out too.
How long do sessions last? Hireth Counselling & Therapy sessions last 50 minutes, but may run a little longer if this is helpful. Flexibility is often build into these bookings for these sessions to ensure a strong connection is made, & that technology challenge does not interrupt our work.
What can I expect from a session? There is no set agenda or plan for a session, instead these are led by you, at your pace to ensure that you share what is helpful to you and when you are ready. The ethos of Person-Centred Counselling & Therapy is to trust in your own expertise in your needs and to support you in navigating to your own wisdom. Where relevant, referrals may be made to other modalities. Alternative tools and resources are suggested or appropriate medical, legal or therapeutic specialists recommended if this is deemed helpful. Sessions will be fully confidential at all times except where safeguarding needs apply and in anonymised supervision.
Can I make a recording? Recordings are not usually helpful for this type of therapy and clients are encouraged to trust in their own recall, what they need to recall they can. Should you wish to make a recording, please do raise this with me to explore with you.
What is Person-Centred Counselling? This is a modality of talking therapy developed from the work of Carl Rogers to enable individuals to move towards their ‘self-actualising’ or ‘optimised self’. I don’t subscribe to a perspective that I have a power over others, merely that I have put a lot of attention into this work, and we are in a supportive connection to explore how to support you in accessing your own innate wisdom and self-knowledge to guide you. These sessions are led by you, to meet you within the context of your unique experience.
Can you work with couples? I don’t currently offer this service, however, many clients find that their relationships do benefit when they engage in Counselling & Therapy so individual sessions may be more suitable. Why not book in for a complementary chat, A Quick Cuppa, to identify what might be most suitable for your needs?
Who is Counselling & Therapy session suitable for? Nearly everybody who is seeking a new approach! In order to connect best, it is appropriate for clients to be over 18 years old & ready to start their therapy journey. I work with a diverse range of clients from teenagers to elders, and often welcome clients with lived experience of Neurodiversity and those in the queer community.
Are you insured? Yes. I hold fully comprehensive insurance for this work & am a member of an appropriate registration body to ensure ongoing best practice in this work.
Can you recommend other resources or practitioners to me? A part of this work is signposting clients towards resources or practices that may be useful to them. I carefully research my recommendations, often as a client myself to ensure that these are reliable, ethical practioners, aligned to your best interest. Many of my clients come to me through referrals, so if you work in an aligned field, I'd be very keen to network with you: Please get in touch or book in for A Quick Cuppa with me.
What will I leave a session with? Many clients report that they feel energised, more positive, & have a sense of renewed purpose following a session. Due to the varied nature of the individuals therapy experience, some may find that they become more self-aware, or more ‘congruent’, moving towards being their more authentic self.
Do you offer corporate or events work? For organisations, I can also offer consultancy work in a range of business settings, providing group wellness, mindfulness and mental health coaching services, lectures & events. Organisations seeking to offer independent therapy services to colleagues under pressure have found this service to be useful in the past.
Are you taking on new clients? Yes, however due to the individual nature of these sessions, only limited numbers of clients are taken on each month so where there is not availability, you can be added to the service waitlist. Sessions can be booked via the ‘Services’ page here.
Is a course of sessions useful? Yes. I recommend booking a course of 6 sessions initially, though we will regularly review if you are finding the sessions useful and what frequency is useful for us to meet as this may vary for some clients. For many clients, a regular session with a confirmed next appointment can be the most useful way to develop the therapeutic relationship. For others a one-off check in session following a block of sessions is useful to support them staying on track and working through a challenge as it appears for them. No matter what’s the best fit for you, work will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it’s useful and relevant to your needs. Since session regularity will vary by individual, if you are unsure what might suit you, why not book into A Quick Cuppa to discuss your situation?
Are sessions secret? Within our sessions it is important that we build and maintain a trusting relationship. In order to do this, it is important that you understand that I will keep confidential information that you share with me. It can take a lot of trust to share your story and this is not a responsibility that I take lightly in hearing it.
As we live in a connected world and community, it is possible that we might encounter or know each other in different contexts, something therapists refer to as a ‘dual relationship’. In order to navigate this, it is worth us being clear on how we manage this should it occur. In the event that we cross paths in a different context, I will not, so far as it is possible, acknowledge you or make evident that I know you. It will be your choice to greet me should you wish to.
The conversations and connections that we have within our sessions will stay there and stay confidential. There are however a few circumstances in which this may be different:
As a BACP Registered Counsellor, I am required to undertake regular supervision. This means that I discuss my client case load with my supervisor who is also bound by confidentiality. I anonymise aspects that may make you in any way identifiable to my supervisor and only speak to them regarding our work to identify ways in which I can provide you with a stronger therapeutic connection – essentially to improve the service that I offer you. I also participate in Peer Supervision sessions with other practioners, and again, any sharing here is with the same anonymous emphasis.
As I am a member of the BACP, I am bound by their Ethical Framework to protect a client’s confidentiality. I may need to break your confidentiality in 2 specific circumstances. Wherever possible you will be kept fully updated on the rational for this and I will include you in the process. These circumstances are:
- If I fear you are a danger to yourself or other people. I will attempt to discuss this with you and my supervisor before breaking your confidentiality, as my focus here will be to try to keep you safe and reduce risk.
- If I am required by law to assist with the detection of or prevention of a serious crime. This means that I will be required to cooperate with police services in cases where children or vulnerable people are at risk or crimes where substantial finances or terrorism acts are involved.
Is Hireth Counselling & Therapy right for me?
I can’t tell you - I honour your decision to know. I care deeply about safety, security and comfort. It may be that you feel you already know, it may be that a no-commitment chat will help you feel into it so do please reach out if you’re interested in finding out. Our sessions are held in the strictest confidence, with no reference to them being made outside the consultation context, and referrals are always available to other modalities and therapies to suit your needs. Relationships, especially therapeutic ones, have their strengths and weaknesses, like everything in life, so it’s important for you to trust what you feel is right for you and your body. I’m happy to discuss this with you further in A Quick Cuppa session if you feel this would be useful.
I work in a Complementary and Alternative Medicine or wellness business too. Can we connect? As a key part of my work involves referrals to other services and therapies, I am always very keen to network with practioners in the wellness industries who have work that is aligned to my areas of practice. If you work in CAM’s or wellness and have recognised expertise, qualifications and insurance for your work, I’d love to connect with you to learn more about your practice and collaborate. Please do get in touch with me to arrange a meeting or book into A Quick Cuppa session.
I don’t think that I’m looking for regular therapy, but I'd like to work with you, what else do you offer? You may find a ‘Hireth Homecoming’ session appropriate for you. This is a 60 minute session in which we may use a range of coaching tools to support your needs and provide you with support, fresh insights and a new perspective.
Do I have to spend a lot on Hireth Counselling & Therapy? Consultations and sessions with Hireth Medicine do come at a cost as they reflect the value of an appointment and the amount of supplementary support that goes into our collaboration. There are other practitioners who offer a lower cost service which may be more aligned to some clients, but where finance is an obstacle to you working with me, sliding scale options can be explored.
I am concerned that you might not support my real life if I talk to you about it? I seek always to work without judgement of my clients and their lives, and to connect with my clients from a place of ‘unconditional positive regard’. I seek to avoid setting expectations of ‘perfection’ for either of us: we are humans doing our best. The nature of our work requires the fostering of a trusting, honest and supportive dynamic, and where this is not in place, the medicine of our connection will be lacking. My work seeks to be as inclusive and judgement-free and trauma-informed as possible. I have experience working with clients of diverse backgrounds, lifestyles and with those who are members of the LGBTQIA2S communities. I have lived experience of being a member of the queer and neurodiverse communities. Many of my clients are either formally diagnosed or aware of some neurodiverse traits in themselves - working with understanding of how this might shape their experience can be of benefit to some clients and offer significant reassurance in initially connecting.
Should you have a specific query regarding my practice inclusion, or wish to explore ways that we can adapt sessions to better meet your needs, please do feel free to connect with me directly. Should you identify an area in which you wish to alert me that it might be helpful for me to better educate myself to support my clients or a specific community, I am grateful for this being brought to my attention and will receive this with open-heartedness. It is of great importance to me that my practice is a place of safety and offers new ways of being, and I seek always to explore where I can better ensure this value is made tangible for my clients.
What qualifications do you hold? I am a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and accordingly I abide by their Ethical Framework. This can be found here. I completed a Level 5 diploma in Person-Centred Therapy at Cornwall Counselling Institute, via The University of Plymouth in 2024. I hold additional training certificates in working OPT (Online & Phone Therapy), working with Children & Young People, Understanding Mental health, & Understanding Autism. I hold comprehensive insurance for my work as a Person-Centred Therapist and public liability for my clinic space.
How would a session run? Person-Centred Therapy sessions last 50 minutes and tend to be once a week at a set and consistent time. This means that when we start we will establish mutual availability to identify times and if you prefer to work in person, online via Zoom or in a hybrid manner between both. Sessions will generally occur at the same times, but subject to availability this will be possible to pivot to fit flexibly with your schedule. In some cases, clients may choose to work more intensively over a short period of time such as when under considerable stress and more than weekly appointments can be made available. Sessions tend to be planned for 6 sessions to ensure that we have established a trusting connection, but this will depend on your need and we will explore this in sessions to confirm that continuing to work together is feeling useful and aligned for us both. Should you be working with another therapist, it is appropriate to make me aware of this as it may not be suitable to maintain both these therapeutic relationships simultaneously. Bookings for sessions can be done automatically via my website or at the end of each session as best suits your need. When I have other commitments requiring a gap in our work or a session reschedule, I will offer you maximum notice and will, if necessary, offer you details for alternative therapists to work with.
A key aspect of working with me as a client is my willingness to offer you flexibility for our work to support and fit around your busy life. In many cases consistency of appointments and routine can help that, but flexibility is, where scheduling allows, possible to offer. I do not charge a late fee or cancellation fee for appointments, but where a no-show occurs without explanation, I will seek payment in advance in future. When I have cancellation appointments, I am often able to offer these to other clients so I appreciate your support with this.
What have clients said about this work? References for this work are available upon request, so please let me know if you would find this useful in assessing our work together. You can find references for my consultation style and work more generally here.
How do I prepare for a session? Many clients find it useful to prepare by clearing their schedule a little so that they have time for reflection before & after the session, allowing them to be more grounded & present to make most use of the session time. It can also be useful to warn other household members that you may be unavailable for the duration of the session to allow you to focus more fully, have headphones ready to ensure your privacy, reduce background noise where possible & consider having a notebook available to record ideas or follow up action suggestions. Having a lovely cup of tea to hand is always encouraged!
