Sarah Backhouse

I currently have availability both in person and online, including some early morning and evening times. Please get in touch for more information.

I work online across the UK, and in person in Stevenage, North Hertfordshire, with adults facing bereavement, a life-limiting diagnosis, caring responsibilities and other life changes. These experiences deserve time and care, without being rushed or tidied up.

Perhaps someone close to you has died, and the world carrying on around you no longer makes sense. Perhaps you've been given a diagnosis — your own or someone else's — and you're trying to keep going while everything inside you is changing. Maybe you're caring for someone day after day and feel worn down, unseen, or unsure of who you are outside that role. Perhaps you feel a pressure that won't lift, or unease since something changed, or you are carrying the weight of a situation or decision that feels impossible to live with. Whatever has brought you to seek counselling, you don't have to have the right words ready, and you don't have to be in crisis to deserve support.

Counselling is most effective when you feel heard and accepted as you are. My hope is that the relationship we build will create trust and safety that allows you to access and express your feelings more freely — perhaps in ways you haven’t felt able to before. You might begin to notice small shifts, such as feeling more able to put things into words, asking for what you need, responding differently in situations that used to feel difficult, or speaking more kindly to yourself. Perhaps you find a way to grieve that feels right for you, or you begin to feel moments of relief and joy without it feeling like a betrayal. You may feel less overwhelmed, and able to sit with anxiety, uncertainty or loneliness in a new way. You may start to rebuild a sense of yourself, and recognise your place in the world once more.

I am trained in person-centred counselling, an approach built around your own experience. It starts from the belief that, given the right conditions, people can come to understand themselves and their difficulties more fully, and find their own way forward.

The relationship between us is central to the work; I hope you'll find that I'm calm, unhurried and easy to talk to, and offer a grounded space where you can explore your experience at your pace, however messy or unfinished it feels. I will meet you with warmth and respect, valuing your individuality and autonomy at every step.

I bring curiosity, integrity, and experience as a volunteer counsellor for a hospice to my practice.

I work with adults both in person and online, and offer short- and long-term counselling.

I offer an initial free, 20-minute phone call for you to get an idea of whether counselling with me feels right for you. 

This call carries no obligation to begin counselling with me or take any next steps. I will ask about your hopes and concerns about counselling, any previous experience of counselling, and practical things like your availability, access needs, and anything relevant to your health and wellbeing.

If you decide to go ahead, we will book in an initial 50-minute session together. During this session we will create a contract for how we will work together, and discuss whether you'd like to agree a number of sessions or work on an open-ended basis. I hope to be able to set out expectations and boundaries for our work in a transparent and collaborative way, and you are welcome to ask questions at any point during this process.