Mary Prime

I am currently available for online therapy sessions, either via Zoom, or telephone sessions.

I am currently taking on new clients. I have availability Monday - Friday evenings and weekends - please email me for my current available slots.

I have no planned time off at the moment.

Including common mental health distress, such as anxiety and depression. Bereavement and loss. Relationship issues. Stress at work. Issues associated with caring for others. I enjoy supporting clients with a range of long-term, chronic health conditions, including chronic pain, endometriosis, fibromyalgia. I have a unique combination of professional skills and personal lived experience of a chronic pain condition that benefits my work with this client group. I describe myself as an integrative counsellor, mainly working from a person-centred perspective. My aim is to build a safe and trusting therapeutic relationship with you, where you feel comfortable and empowered to talk about whatever you need to. You are in charge of what you talk about and how much you share with me in each session. 

I may use ideas from modalities other than person-centred counselling - in order to tailor the sessions to you and your unique needs. Informed by my work as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner in the NHS I may sometimes suggest CBT techniques that may be useful for exploring negative thinking patterns or maladaptive behaviour patterns. As an example you may be encouraged to keep a diary of your negative thoughts and any situations that may be 'triggering' these. Together we would explore this diary in sessions and see what patterns may be occurring for you. 

I am a warm, gentle and supportive counsellor. My aim is to work in collaboration with you and be alongside you as you rediscover your inner resources and are empowered to live the life that you want.

Since March 2020 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic I have mainly been offering online counselling for my clients. This has many benefits including flexible, accessible sessions that you can access from the safety and comfort of your own home or from areas outside of Milton Keynes.

All you need to access online sessions is a private space where you won't be overheard by others, or disturbed for the hour session that we have together. You will also need a stable internet connection and either a phone, laptop, or tablet device that can run Zoom, or other video-conferencing platforms.

During the first session we will spend some time together carrying out an assessment. This first session is a chance for us to meet and get a feel for what it might be like for both of us to work together in a therapeutic counselling relationship.

It is really important for you to ask as many questions as you have in order to help you decide whether you feel comfortable talking to me and whether or not counselling feels right for you at this time.

The following list is a summary of some of the questions that we will cover during the assessment:

• I will ask you what has brought you to counselling at this time.
• I will ask you about any previous experiences of counselling that you may have had. What may have been helpful about these experiences of therapy and aspects that were not so helpful. This can help me to make your sessions with me as helpful as possible.
• I will ask you if you have had any other mental health, or physical health treatment that might be relevant to our work together.
• I will ask you if you currently take any medication for a physical, or mental health issue that may be relevant to our work together.
• I will ask you about your safety and the safety of others - it is important for us to regularly check in about areas such as suicide and self-harm - so that I can help to support you with managing any difficulties in this area.
• I will ask you about your current support network - do you have people around you who you can talk to? If appropriate
• I may suggest some other organisations that may be able to offer you additional help and support.