What is Counselling?

As adults we know just how hard it can be to express ourselves. Our children and young people can find this to be rather difficult also. Especially when they are learning how to express their emotions. They may have trouble finding the correct words to express themselves or they simply may not understand what these emotions are or why they are happening. By working together, we can explore and discover these emotions in a safe yet fun way through creativity, mindfulness and coping skills. 

 I am a firm believer in confidentiality between myself and my clients. However, there are some exceptions where confidentiality will need to be broken. If this should occur, the child or young person will, whenever possible, be involved in this decision. Confidentiality will be broken if I need to share information; such as;  if I have a safeguarding concern where I believe that the child or young person, or someone else, may be at serious risk of harm or if they or someone else is involved in an act of terrorism, drug trafficking or money laundering . 

I have a supervisor of which I attend sessions where I discuss my cases in a way that helps me to give you the best support that I possibly can. During these supervision sessions, your personal details, such as your name, address and telephone number are not given, therefore keeping to our confidentiality agreement.   

 While working with a child or a young person, I will arrange ‘parent sessions’ every 3 to 6 sessions to let you know how the sessions are going. However, I am a firm believer in respecting the confidentiality between myself and my clients. The only way this will be broken is if I feel that the child or young person may be at significant risk of harm. This will be discussed, when possible, with the child or young person beforehand. 

 All and any information provided about you, including personal details is treated in line with data protection legislation and GDPR 2018. 

Any handwritten notes are kept in a locked filing cabinet. Any digital notes are kept on a secure encrypted computer/hard drive. I am registered with the ICO for safe keeping of this information. 

Keeping in line with the complaint’s procedures of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), all information collected will be kept in a secure fashion, as mentioned above, for up to 3 years after sessions have ended.