Article
Does Online Counselling Actually Work? (An Honest Look)
Does online counselling actually work? What the evidence says, who it suits, who it suits less, and how to get the most from therapy by video or phone.
Stories
Stories about starting therapy in the UK.
Stories are short, plain pieces about starting therapy in the UK: what a first session is actually like, how much it costs and how to ask, whether online works, and how to tell if it is doing anything. Each one names the person who wrote it, the person who checked it with their credentials, and the date. None of them is a testimonial, and none is a substitute for talking to a professional.
Published pieces
Article
How Much Does Therapy Cost in the UK? (And How to Ask)
How much does therapy cost in the UK? Typical private session fees, what affects them, free and lower-cost options, and how to ask about cost without any awkwardness.
Article
What a First Therapy Session Is Actually Like (UK)
Nervous about your first therapy session? Here is what actually happens in a first counselling session in the UK, what to ask, and why it is a conversation, not a commitment.
When you are ready
Find a verified therapist near you, or by the kind of therapy
Every therapist linked below has been checked against their register by a person. Nothing is ranked, and nobody pays to be placed higher.
Counselling near you
One page per town, with a map of the districts where somebody practises. A pin marks the towns with somebody on them today, and every town is one link further on.
Types of therapy
Each approach links to the verified therapists who work that way. A tick marks the approaches with somebody today. Not sure which you want? The six questions ask in plain words instead.
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Humanistic
- Integrative
- Psychodynamic
- Art therapy
- Attachment-based
- Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)
- Compassion-focused therapy (CFT)
- Couples counselling
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally focused therapy (EFT)
- Existential
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Gestalt
- Hypnotherapy
- Internal family systems (IFS)
- Interpersonal therapy (IPT)
- Jungian analysis
- Mindfulness-based
- Narrative therapy
- Person-centred
- Play therapy
- Psychoanalytic
- Psychosexual therapy
- Schema therapy
- Solution-focused brief therapy
- Somatic and body-based
- Systemic and family therapy
- Transactional analysis (TA)
- Trauma-focused CBT
Also: every town and every issue, and online counselling from anywhere in the UK.
Plain answers
About these pieces
Who writes these, and who checks them?
Each piece names its author and the person who reviewed it, with that reviewer's credentials and the date of the review, printed on the page. A piece without a named reviewer is not published. Health content is reviewed by somebody qualified to review it.
Are these advice?
They are plain explanations of what tends to happen, written for somebody deciding whether to start. They are not advice about you, and none makes a promise about an outcome. If you need help now, the urgent support page says where to turn.
Are there testimonials or client stories?
No. Nothing here is written by a client about their therapist, and nothing rates anybody. A story about a person's own therapy, in a public place, is not something this site asks anyone for.