Support for you, just as you are

Psychological therapy, or ‘talking therapy’ can help you deal with a range of problems, such as anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, life transitions, bereavement or loss, childhood difficulties, experiences of trauma…or simply feeling at a bit of a loss as to where to go next. Therapy refers to a wide range of different options for treatment, and every therapist is different. Our Clinical Members draw from many different approaches and models in our work – both traditional, evidence based psychological therapies as well as more holistic approaches. 

Our Clinical Members are experienced in a range of therapies including: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Feminist Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Narrative Therapy, Non-Violent Communication, Psychodynamic therapy,  Schema Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Solution-Focused brief therapy, Systemic Therapy and more. 

Some are also trained in holistic approaches including coaching, trauma-informed antenatal support, mindfulness and yoga therapy. We draw from all of these different approaches to offer a comprehensive approach tailored to your unique need.

We take a questioning approach to all models and apply them integratively to suit you. We are always happy to talk over why we make the therapeutic choices we do and transparent about our approach.

In our Co-operative our Clinical Members have a range of skills. We have Clinical, Counselling and Educational Psychologists in the Co-operative, as well as a Psychotherapist. 

The Clinical and Counselling Psychologists in our team work in similar ways. While our training differs, in practice we take similar approaches. Both professions base their work in a combination of research and the therapeutic relationship. 

Educational Psychologists have a different route to training, coming from a teaching background. They are skilled at assessing the social, emotional and mental health needs of children and young people, and providing short term intervention. 

At the core of all of our work is our relationship with our client or clients. We meet weekly and learn from each other’s background and training, and may work jointly with you if requested. We consider the many different factors which may influence people throughout their lifespan, such as perinatal and childhood experiences, ancestral history, current relationships, health, genetics, brain development, disability, cultural influences and so on. This means that we are able to offer a holistic approach to problems, taking into account a person’s context. We base our work on evidence-based therapeutic models, and applying them to meet you where you are.

We often work in partnership with other professionals and under supervision to ensure we are continually developing our practice and offering the most appropriate service. 

Before we do anything at all, we’ll have a chat with you about what you are looking for and what we think is the most useful step. We are very clear that we don’t offer quick solutions – but we can support you in gradually finding your own solutions.

If you are coming for a one-off ‘Untangling’ session, we will meet for 90 minutes to focus on a specific issue. We might also ask about your background, circumstances, family, hopes and dreams to understand you better. We aim to come to a shared understanding of your current difficulties and will follow this up with a brief summary. It is not unusual for us to find in these sessions that some ongoing work would be helpful – but there is never any pressure for you to continue that work. 

If you are coming for therapy, this will always start with an assessment session. This takes place over 1-3 sessions usually, when we will learn about you! We will ask you about you as a whole human being, as well as the things which are causing you difficulty right now and what you are hoping for from therapy. Following this, we may suggest that a different person or service would be more suitable for you. If we agree to continue to work together for therapy, we will agree a number of sessions to start with. We may work together for a focused period, 6-16 sessions, or we may work over a number of months or sometimes years. 

Therapy ends as agreed between you and your therapist. Ending therapy is an important part of the therapeutic process, so we always suggest that this is discussed and planned together. 

Still, even now, there is a lot of stigma and misinformation about therapy. That you’ll have to lie on a couch (you’re welcome to, we understand you’re probably sleep deprived!), there will be long silences, it’s only for people with ‘real’ mental health problems, that it’s just not for you. 

There are also lots and lots of quick-fix solutions out there now. You can use a text therapy service to try and improve things wherever you are, or see someone for three sessions of life changing magic, or read a self-help book! It can be hard to see the value of sitting with someone (often, an expensive someone) week in and week out. 

But therapy can be truly transformative, and often it does take a while to create a true, long lasting change. We work using evidence based techniques drawn from a range of different approaches and with the support of each other as well as other experienced mentors and colleagues. Sometimes progress can feel slow when you want rapid change, but we believe that you come to therapy because you want things to be actually different. Not just to learn new skills (you will learn some of them too), but to know yourself better, to feel more accepting of yourself and your life and to make meaningful changes. The evidence shows the relationship between the client and the therapist is one of the key factors in a successful outcome, and we will use our collaborative relationship to improve other relationships and experiences in your life. 

Therapy is not always right for everyone, and it is not always the right time. But it really can work! 

We are often asked how we can call ourselves an inclusive/anti-oppressive organisation and charge such enormous amounts of money for our sessions. As a private organisation of highly specialist practitioners, we have chosen a rate that reflects our expertise in comparison to other similar psychological services and this is a flat fee to offer equal value to all of our practitioners and their varied skills. We are aware – and regularly discuss – the dilemma of working in anti-oppressive ways under capitalism and how we do this in ways which are sustainable to us as individuals too. But this is an imperfect solution to a major problem.

We currently offer The Village Parenting Community as a free resource, and we hope to be able to offer more low cost and free services to make our skills more widely accessible as we become profitable (which we are not as yet). Our choice to become a Co-operative and put profit back into our services reflects our commitment to more equitable mental health care.

We understand that it can take a LOT to consider therapy. We humans are brilliant at pretending that everything is fine, and change is hard! There are also common, big worries about therapy like: ‘what if I find out I’m totally messed up?’, ‘what if I lose my family?’, ‘what if I end up feeling unable to cope?’ We know how much it takes to talk to us, and we are here as your supporters along your therapeutic journey. We will go at your pace, and you are ALWAYS welcome to ask us questions, share your concerns and let us know when you feel we’re getting it wrong (which we, inevitably, will at times).