Lucy Sawrey-Cookson

From September I will have some availability for online counselling. I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday - daytime and early evening. 

I am an integrative counsellor with a person-centred orientation: I believe in you, your courage and capacity to seek the self-awareness required to make the positive changes needed for self-acceptance, fulfilment, balance and joy. 

I can offer you a safe space to discover your real self, where and how you are experiencing conflict, your coping mechanisms and patterns of behaviour and how to enable successful, lifelong positivity from within. 

Successful therapy is very much dependent on the client/counsellor relationship - honesty, warmth, trust, humour, non-judgment and total confidentiality are integral to my work ethic. I work collaboratively with my clients, meeting them where they are on their journey. I am very flexible in approach and understand that, with the full range of lived experiences - from the pain of grief and trauma to the undoing of poor lifestyle habits - all clients will have different needs in terms of therapeutic approach and length of therapy. While some may focus on a desire for deeper, long-term work, others are looking for time-limited, motivational, solution-focused therapy - together, we will work through your situation and tend to your needs.

I am confident, experienced and qualified working with adults and teenagers alike. I have worked in a pastoral setting supporting teenagers and adults for the past 20 years in schools and higher education settings. I also work with adults and young people in private practice, for charities and within the EAP sector. 

I have specific experience in ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, anxiety, depression, grief and bereavement, relationship difficulties within the family, partnerships, friendships and within the workplace, parenting issues, sexual issues and sexuality, abuse, self-harm, suicide and suicidal ideation, identity, low self-esteem and emotional regulation. 

I addition, I have specific training in eating disorders and work for a South West based eating disorder charity. 

I have an honours degree with an additional level 4 Diploma in Counselling. 

Before your first session, I will ask you to read and sign our counselling contract (a simple pact made to protect the client and counsellor and covering important issues such as confidentiality)  For the first few minutes of the first session we will ensure that we are both comfortable and clear on the counselling conditions stated in the contract.  After this, the focus will be on an assessment of your situation, looking at previous and current circumstances at your pace.  Once we have established key focal points for therapy, we will work in unison to formulate a therapeutic plan that respects and flexes to your desired pace and method.