Lucy Welford

My working days are:

Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

I have some flexibility to offer online sessions on additional days.

Sands of Change is a private counselling and psychotherapy practice for adults, children and young people based in South Wales. My name is Lucy and I am a qualified psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. I offer open-ended and flexible individual sessions tailored to your needs, both online and in my tranquil office space located in the heart of Penarth near Cardiff.

Therapy is a journey of empowerment. I like to give my clients the tools and understanding to master their own healing. I believe in treating everyone with respect, empathy and kindness. It takes a lot of courage to reach out for help and I recognize that opening up to a stranger can feel very daunting. I will be alongside you through every step, working with you to create a space without judgement or shame - no matter what you are going through.

I can help you with stress and anxiety, depression, family conflicts, loneliness, self-esteem, anger, healing from trauma and abuse, relationships issues, emotional regulation (and helping children to regulate their emotions), gender and identity, attachment ruptures, and many other personal challenges. Whether you wish for simply a listening ear and someone to offload to, or a more directive approach such as setting goals and developing new coping skills, we will make a plan together so you can get the most out of your therapy. I am a big fan of regular check-ins to make sure your experience is meeting your needs. Above all, I wish to create a positive and trusting environment in therapy, so you can feel safe exploring your innermost thoughts and challenges.

I have been a registered member of the BACP since 2020 and have a wealth of professional experience supporting adults, children and young people. I have worked as a counsellor in schools and universities; for a charity caring for life-limited individuals and their families; a suicide prevention organization; a bereavement group; and in private practice where I support adults and young people with a range of personal challenges. I trained as an Integrative Arts Counsellor at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education in London, and have since become a registered SandStory® Therapist as well as expanding my expertise in several specialized areas including ADHD and autism, eating disorders, and sexual trauma.

I work in a person-centred way, so my approach will depend on the issues you bring to therapy. Being an integrative therapist means I draw upon different theories and ways of working that include somatic techniques (working with the body); psychodynamic (making connections between the past and how you are now); and cognitive interventions that focus on changing your patterns of behaviour and thought. I am also a registered SandStory® Therapist, offering a unique and sought-after therapeutic approach that centres around bringing the unconscious into the conscious to explore.

For me, therapy is a collaboration between the two of us, and so I am always receptive to feedback and I welcome exploration of ideas you may have, books you have read....anything that takes us further down the road together! 

Choosing a therapist can be tricky, which is why I offer a FREE no-obligation 45-minute consultation where we can get to know one another and I can answer any questions you have.

In this first session, we will discuss your hopes and expectations for therapy and I will talk about my ways of working. I will outline the information I will need from you if we do commence therapy, and provide you with the relevant paperwork to take away and go through at your leisure.