Counselling

White Hart Therapies offer individual counselling to adults based in Birmingham, or nationwide via telephone or video call. We have a large range of specialist skills and knowledge and welcome all enquiries. We love what we do, and it is a privilege for us to walk alongside you as you navigate through your journey. If you think we could be a good fit, contact us for a free initial consultation.

Counselling can help with a wide range of problems that are too lengthy to list here. It is sometimes too hard to fit your needs into a specific ‘category’ because they are unique to you, may be quite complex, and may involve feelings or emotions or behaviours we just don’t understand ourselves or that are occurring for no apparent reason. If you are unsure, get in touch and we can chat about what it is you might need.

At White Hart Therapies we have experience of working with people on the following subjects:

  • Abuse (including domestic, sexual, coercive control, organisational)
  • Narcissistic personality disorder
  • Birth Trauma (some of our counsellors are qualified midwives)
  • Bereavement (including anticipatory, end of life, miscarriage and baby loss, pets and all types of loss)
  • Infertility, fertility treatments and IVF
  • Relationships (including workplace, familial, children/parental, friendships and romantic)
  • Trauma
  • Stress, anxiety, low mood, depression and other common mental health concerns
  • Self esteem, confidence and sense of self
  • Self-harm
  • Employment issues including redundancy and retirement
  • Gender identity and sexuality
  • Health related anxiety
  • Inner child work
  • Life direction
  • Women’s health
  • Menopause
  • Spirituality
  • Whistleblowing

Ultimately only you can really know what works best for you! During your initial consultation we discuss what has brought you to counselling and get to know more about what you would like to gain from the sessions. If you are particularly interested in a specific modality or type of therapy you can discuss this with us.

It is almost impossible to estimate this ahead of starting our work together and even then, the goal posts can change! White Hart Therapists offer short, medium, and long-term counselling as well as single specific item sessions. We negotiate together how many sessions you may need at the start and throughout our work. Sometimes you only need a few sessions to work through a specific issue; sometimes things take longer and are more layered and complex. We won’t waste your time or money by offering counselling where we don’t feel we can help or where you could benefit more from a different or specialist service.

Each client is unique and as such will and need something unique in terms of our work together, however the first session does usually follow a format for example:

  • We will explain how we keep your information private and confidential and when in exceptional circumstances we may have to break confidentiality (here link to confidentiality)
  • We will go over our counselling contract which you can read in advance (here) to ensure our expectations match and we have clear boundaries in place – you will remain in control of what discuss at all times
  • You can ask us any questions about the process and counselling generally and we can talk about how you would like to work for example if you like creative/art therapy or if talking is what you would prefer
  • You will begin to talk a little bit about yourself and what it is that is going on for you
  • We will be able to talk about what you ideally want to get out of our sessions and our work together – how we can develop a safe and supportive relationship to explore the changes you would like to make and start putting them into practice
  • We can agree an initial number of sessions along with when we may review our work and your progress

White Hart Therapies waiting list is shorter than most free counselling services and we will aim to reply to any enquiries within a day or two. At certain times you may have to wait a few weeks to see your preferred therapist. We do our utmost to keep our waiting list short and we have an excellent network of therapists we can refer you on to in the event that you are not able to wait. Most of the time we can see you within two weeks of our initial consultation.

Finding a Counsellor you feel safe and comfortable with is of utmost importance; if you don’t feel comfortable enough to open up then we will not be able to work effectively with you. We will all come across people who for whatever reason we don’t quite gel with and this is part of being human. For this reason, we offer an initial chat free of charge, so that you can get a sense of who we are and how we work. We also encourage you to ‘shop around’ to find the best fit for you.

If after a few sessions you feel it is not working how you thought it would then that is also absolutely fine and we will completely respect your decision to end the contract early. We will build in regular time to check out how you are feeling our work is progressing and if there is anything you would like more or less of. Feedback is so important to us and we welcome any opportunity to reflect on our work together. Our counsellors also reserve the right to end the contract early in the even of any inappropriate behaviour or breaches of the contract as agreed at the start of our work together.