Olivia Fawkes

I currently have availability for new clients. 

I work on Monday - Friday across morning, daytime and evening sessions. My first session of the day is 9.00am and my last is 7.00pm

Life doesn't always unfold as we imagined. Sometimes the life we've built no longer feels quite right, or a change in circumstances leaves us wondering who we are and what comes next.

As an integrative counsellor, I offer a warm, non-judgemental space where you can feel truly seen and heard. I work collaboratively, helping you explore your thoughts and feelings at your own pace, with empathy and acceptance alongside gentle challenge when it feels helpful.

I believe counselling should be a collaborative process, with your needs and best interests at its heart. We can agree goals for our work together, review progress as we go and keep an open dialogue about how things are working for you. I want us both to feel confident that our work is helpful and that we are moving in a direction that feels right for you.

Sessions are 50 minutes long and take place in person or online over Zoom. I offer sessions on both a long or short-term basis¸ either taking an open-ended approach or agreeing a set number of sessions. A counselling contract between us will be agreed in our initial sessions which will include what you would like to achieve through counselling, and this will be reviewed regularly while we work together.

My integrative approach draws on humanistic therapies, including person-centred and Gestalt approaches, alongside psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). These offer different ways of understanding our experiences, feelings and patterns of behaviour. However, I believe the quality of the relationship between us matters as much as the approach we use. Feeling safe enough to be open, explore difficult feelings and speak honestly about what is happening for you provides the foundation for our work together.

I aim to offer a space in which you can speak freely, without fear of judgement, and feel genuinely understood. Alongside listening and empathy, I may gently invite you to look at things differently or explore questions that feel uncomfortable but could help you move forward. I see counselling as a collaborative process, shaped around you rather than a set of techniques to be applied.

Before becoming a counsellor, I spent more than twenty years in senior marketing, communications and leadership roles across the public, charity and commercial sectors. This experience has given me an understanding of the pressures of professional life, the expectations we place on ourselves and the way our work can become entwined with our sense of identity. It is one part of the perspective I bring to counselling, alongside my training and the relationship we build together.

I offer a free introductory telephone call of up to 20 minutes. This is an opportunity for us to talk briefly about what has brought you to counselling, ask any initial questions and consider whether we feel we could work well together.

If we decide to go ahead, our first counselling session will give us more time to explore what you would like help with and what you hope to gain from therapy. You don't need to have everything worked out or know exactly where to begin. We can take things at your pace.

Finding the right counsellor matters, and I want you to feel comfortable asking questions and deciding whether working together feels right for you.