Christine Bailey

My purpose in offering you a counselling session is to create a time and space for you to speak aloud your hopes, fears, sadnesses and dreams about your life. My role is to make you my primary concern during the time we spend together, and to listen attentively and without judgment to help you find your way through the questions and concerns that have led you to seek help from an outsider. 

As an "integrative" counsellor and psychotherapist, I tailor my approach to each individual who asks for my help, by inviting you to share your hopes, fears and expectations of counselling.

I always have in mind that while some people relish the chance to talk about themselves, other people find it very difficult to ask for help, and may be quite anxious about approaching me.

I do my best to explain how counselling might help without using jargon.

I invite you to tell me regularly how counselling is working for you (or not) so that we can make changes if we need to.

I'm responsible for the process of counselling - contracting, reviewing, timekeeping - but you are responsible for the content, so in each session, once we have concluded any necessary "business", I hand over to you to say what you'd like to talk about. In this way we make sure we are using the time to explore the topics you choose.

People that have researched counselling tell us that the most important factor - after your own motivation and commitment - is the quality of the working relationship between us. That's why it is important for you to decide if I am "your kind of therapist" as well as me having a chance to say whether I am competent to work with your particular difficulty.

For those who are interested in theory, you may like to know that I use elements from:

• person-centred counselling
• exploratory goal-corrected psychotherapy(TM) (EGCP)
• eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
• transactional analysis (TA)
• cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

An assessment appointment lasts for one hour (60 minutes) and my current fee is £50. The fee is payable before the session by bank transfer or PayPal, or (for sessions in person) at the session by cash or cheque. Fees are reviewed annually in April.

In the assessment session we will:

• discuss what has brought you to counselling at this time and what you hope to get from it
• discuss your understanding of the counselling process and how it may help
• assess whether you feel at risk from another person or from your own actions
  
• decide whether we can work together productively
• if so, consider how best we can work together and how many sessions we will have
• fill in some paperwork to record all the above

I offer both short-term and long-term counselling. The number of sessions will be discussed between us at this stage but can be shortened or extended later by mutual agreement.

If counselling does not appear suitable, or I am not the best person to help you, I will signpost you to other sources of help.

My working times are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday daytimes.

I'm an integrative practitioner with 15 years' post-qualification experience across the voluntary sector, private practice and occupational health.  I have completed over 4700 clinical hours with clients. 

As a supervisor I am particularly interested in working with the human fear system and the human attachment system.

I am a qualified supervisor holding the Level 6 Certificate in Therapeutic Counselling Supervision from City and Islington College (2013). I offer clinical supervision to trainee and qualified counsellors and psychotherapists.

I am a member of Yorkshire Supervisors Forum and I am on the approved list of supervisors for York St John University.

I supervise in an integrative way with a particular focus on using insights from Exploratory Goal-Corrected Psychotherapy(TM) to inform our work.

There is no charge for our first meeting of up to 1 hour (60 minutes). 

At this meeting we can discuss your supervision requirements and interests and decide together whether I would be the right supervisor for your practice.