Welcome to Joanna Sessford Counselling

A confidential space to explore the thoughts, feelings and challenges in your life

Welcome, and thank you for visiting. My name is Joanna and I am a counsellor based in Malvern and Worcester.

Counselling in a safe, comfortable and private setting

Life can be a complicated and often overwhelming experience; I offer time to focus, explore and make sense of the difficulties that you are experiencing, at your own pace. There are many different reasons people come to counselling. I support adults bringing a wide range of issues including depression, anxiety, stress, significant life changes and bereavement. I am a person-centred counsellor and believe every client is unique. I am therefore flexible in my approach to take my individual clients needs into consideration.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I think we all face trials. I have faced trials in the past and have worked to regain a sense of self-worth. As a result of my experience, training and work; I hope that I can provide a safe and supportive environment to help you explore the difficulties that you are facing. I obtained my Counselling Diploma in 2008. I then lived in China for about 9 years and worked in a totally different area, although I used counselling skills in the voluntary work I was involved with. When I returned to the UK, I started to volunteer and work as a counsellor. I wanted to be sure that I offered my clients, the best possible experience and therefore near the beginning of the Covid pandemic, I took an online Counselling Diploma. I am member of the BACP and ACTO. I regularly complete CPD and have experience of working with clients who are neurodiverse. I also have a separate certificate “Working with Women and Girls in the Sexual Violence Sector”. I currently work in Malvern and Worcester.

Counselling takes place in a safe space, where you can meet with someone who will listen with sensitivity and empathy - and without judgement. In the therapy space thoughts and feelings can be expressed freely and in confidence.

Trouble with a relationship; anxiety or panic attacks; mood swings or depression - many people face difficulties in their everyday lives that can be hard to get on top of. Counselling gives us a set of tools we can use to help gain a better understanding of what’s causing these problems - and how you can move towards managing or resolving them.

Working together I can help you gain greater insight into the difficulties you are facing, help you understand why you act or react to them the way you do, and see how you can start to make better, heathier choices moving forward.

What issues can counselling help with?

People come to me for help a wide range of issues. Here are a few of the more common difficulties that can be supported through counselling:

Feelings of stress or anxiety

Panic attacks

Relationship problems

Grief, loss or bereavement

Problems with addiction

Trauma and post-traumatic stress

Depression

Problems with confidence or self-esteem

Anger management

Issues relating to sexuality

Difficulties at work or in retirement

Problems with family or school life

Online and face-to-face supervision

I aim to offer a safe space for supervisees to learn and reflect, as well as to develop insight and awareness. I use the Seven-Eyed Model and aim to offer support and input tailored to individual supervisee's needs. My focus is always to ensure my supervisee's clients receive ethical and effective counselling, whilst working with my supervisees to overcome any problems that they are facing.

I have a Level 6 qualification in Therapeutic Counselling Supervision. I can offer supervision to both student and qualified counsellors who are seeing individual adult clients.

I charge £45 per hour for online supervision and £50 per hour for face-to-face supervision.

Fees & availability

Sessions last 50 minutes, they usually take place on a weekly basis, and cost £50 per session. I have a limited number of spaces for those on low-incomes or for students at a reduced price; contact me to ask about availability. I do ask for 48 hours notice for cancellations, otherwise you will need to pay for any sessions missed.

Every counsellor will have a slightly different style. I offer an initial free fifteen-minute phone call. This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions and explain what you are looking for from counselling. I will also explain how I work. Following this, in our first session (which I do charge for), we will further explore what brings you to counselling and what you would like to get from our work together. We can then both decide whether we would like to book further sessions. I look forward to hearing from you.

Get in touch

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how counselling works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of coming to counselling, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.

You can also call me on |phone| if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first. I am happy to discuss any queries or questions you may have prior to arranging an initial appointment.

All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services. Find out more by reading my Privacy Policy.

Some frequently asked questions

Many therapists tend to view Counselling as ‘short-term’ work; when someone has a problem that can be looked at and discussed in a clearly-resolvable way. This work often requires undertaking sessions for a certain number of weeks, to explore, discover and clarify a way forward. Therapy is a word used more to describe ‘long-term’ work; discussion that tends towards substantial issues and things that might be life-changing on a deeper level.

Whether counselling or therapy work best as a short- or long-term option depends on the client though, and the difficulties they are facing. In some cases counselling can prove helpful as a continuing, longer-term option, or therapy can help resolve an issue in just a few sessions.

There’s no fixed or ideal length of time for the counselling process; it varies from person to person and will often depend on the depth of the issues they are facing. While I can work on an open-ended basis with clients, I find it is helpful for us to both agree before we start on undertaking a certain number of sessions and reviewing where we are at once we reach that point. You are able to decide how long your therapy will last, and in return my aim is to make sure therapy continues for only as long as it is of benefit to you.

This depends on what your needs are. Some people find that after only a very few sessions they have some clarity and focus and are ready to end the therapy. Other people value the ongoing support and relationship with me and will continue to come for weeks, months, or even years. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' when it comes to therapy.

My aim is to offer you a first appointment, known as an assessment session within 1-2 weeks, this is once we receive your completed client pack back. However, waiting times will vary according to pressure on our resources, your own availability and the service you seek.

An appointment to our short term counselling, which is not subsidised, can be offered within about one week.

Confidentiality is one of the main ways in which therapy differs from many other forms of helping - for example, talking to friends or family can rarely offer the same degree of confidentiality as talking to a counsellor. Because of this confidentiality, you will find that - as you get used to coming for therapy - you are freer to talk about whatever you wish to.

No therapist can offer 100% confidentiality: there are some situations where the law requires disclosure of risk (e.g. certain child protection issues) and in common with most other therapists, there are some situations where I may not be able to keep total confidentiality. In particular, if someone tells me that they are thinking of harming themselves in a way that I believe puts them at serious risk, or if someone tells me that they are doing something that could put others at risk, I may not be able to keep such information confidential. However, breaking confidentiality is rare, and only happens after talking to the person concerned.

When you come for counselling it's important that you feel free to talk about whatever is important to you. Sometimes, you may not be clear what those issues are. Having a friend or family member with you is not usually helpful because they may have their own agenda for you. Even if this is just that they want to be supportive, or want you to 'get better', this agenda can prevent us opening issues up. When you come for therapy, you may need to explore thoughts or behaviours about which you feel ashamed or embarrassed and you may censor yourself so as not to hurt someone, or you may find that what they want you to talk about is not really what you need to discuss.

Sometimes, family/friends can even be part of an underlying issue which needs to be aired and discussed. Usually, people who ask this question are nervous about coming for a session alone, or they are anxious for the person who is thinking about arranging sessions. This anxiety is quite normal, and you will not be forced to talk about anything you feel uncomfortable about - but you do need to be able to talk about whatever is important. For this reason, I do not see clients accompanied by friends or family.