Sarah Simm

I currently have availability within my practice. My working hours are Mondays 10am until 9pm (with the offer of online or telephone counselling after 5pm), Wednesdays 1pm until 5pm, and Thursdays 10am until 4pm. I offer counselling online or over the telephone on Saturday mornings between 9.00am and 1pm.

I am due to be taking a little bit of time off in February and will be unavailable for the week commencing 9th February, and in March I am unavailable on Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th and Saturday 21st March. 

I strive to offer flexibility within my working hours to help you find the most suitable time for your counselling. 

 I am an integrative counsellor with a passion for helping my clients grow in understanding of themselves and others, working together with them to bring about healing and change. I place my clients at the centre of their therapy, giving them autonomy and choice. I see my role as journeying with my clients as they bring the issues that are troubling them. We will work together to find answers and solutions. My focus throughout is on helping my clients build self-understanding, self-acceptance and self-compassion, key ingredients of change.

I seek to use different counselling approaches, like tools in a toolkit, that best fit with each individual. I encourage my client to lay out their issues and difficulties rather like pieces of a jigsaw, helping them to place the pieces the right way up and fit them back together again in a new way. I believe that the relationship between counsellor and client is the most important ingredient for change and growth to take place.

I am a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and my counselling is guided by the BACP ethical framework for good practice. I am supported and guided in my work with clients through monthly supervision.

I offer long-term and short-term counselling to adults of any age. I work face to face, online using Teams or WhatsApp, and over the telephone, building in regular reviews to check out the helpfulness of the therapy for each client. 

Working together collaboratively with my clients is very important to me, enabling them to choose what feels most helpful for them. I am not the expert. They know themselves best! I give plenty of time for discovering a client’s goals in coming for counselling, empowering them to have choice on their journey of recovery.

I believe that the relationship between counsellor and client is the fundamental ingredient for change and growth to take place, so we will take time to make sure I am the right counsellor for you. I offer several different ways of working in the counselling room, being guided by what feels most helpful to you. I work creatively, where this feels beneficial, to help uncover and understand troubling feelings, thoughts and behaviours, seeking to make sense of them.

I work with individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, and have considerable experience of working with clients dealing with the impact of childhood trauma, sexual abuse and domestic abuse. I work in a trauma informed way, giving my clients the tools they need to make their journey of recovery safely. I have experience of working with post-traumatic stress, loss and bereavement, narcissistic relationships, and individuals living with borderline personality disorder. I have experience of working with those who are caring for family members with addiction. 

I hold a Christian faith, seeing every individual as unique and of infinite worth and value. As a counsellor I work inclusively with everyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, ethnicity, or ability. I strive to provide a safe, confidential, non-judgemental affirming space to share what is most important, to be heard deeply with full acceptance and understanding. I see my role as counsellor to be one of empowering my clients to discover their capacity to find the answers they’re searching for. 

The aim of our first session is for you to get a feel for how I work and to decide if I would be the right counsellor for you. I send out my counselling agreement/contract beforehand for you to familiarise yourself with before we meet. We will make time in the first session to answer any questions you may have about this, highlighting the boundaries around confidentiality and the counselling relationship, and addressing any issues of immediate risk or safety.

You will have space to share what has brought you to this point of seeking help now, your expectations for your counselling journey, and the goals you hope to reach by the end of your counselling.

I will share with you more about the ways I work as a counsellor, encouraging you to begin sharing the issues that have brought you to counselling, rather like laying out the pieces of a jigsaw or the bricks of a lego model. 

There is no expectation that you will choose to work with me. The decision always rests with you. You can have space to ask me any questions you may have about the counselling process and the ways in which I work. If you feel happy to continue working with me then we can confirm the best day and time and regularity of meeting up for you. If you need more time to decide then this is completely fine. You are in charge of your therapy.