Our network has evolved through personal and professional connections over a number of years. We are confident that our members are rigorously trained, ethically sound and good at what they do. All our therapists’ contact details can be found here, but if you are unsure about which kind of therapy to choose, or which particular therapist, we can help you decide.

We think that talking therapies can alleviate emotional distress, but often find that people are confused about all the different techniques on offer and claims for what they can do. With this in mind, we hope our site, our Blog included, helps to demystify what happens behind the closed doors of the consulting room, placing therapy firmly in the real world in which we all live.

Therapy is a joint endeavour between you and your therapist, with one aim to help you gain a better understanding of how you exist in your world. This insight often makes change possible, although it may be other factors that help us make positive changes too – including the support of the relationship your forge with your therapist. Therapy comes in various shapes and sizes reflecting the different theoretical models that guide the therapist, as well as the therapist's personality.

Many, but not all therapies, explore your past in relation to your current life - psychoanalysis being the most well-known and intensive in terms of time committed to it. Others place spiritual growth centrally, while for some, thinking about how we think or behave becomes the main focus. Therapists can specialise in time-limited work, or meet with their clients over months or years. Our network of therapists reflects this diversity in ways of working and their websites aim to explain this further.

As a general guide for all of us though:

• Expect to pay upwards of £50 a session. Some of us offer some low-cost places, so it’s worth asking about this if you are on a limited income.
• Expect to attend sessions once, maybe even twice, a week.  Depending on the type of therapy, you may contract to meet a set number of times or agree to work in an open-ended way perhaps over many months or years.
• Confidentiality is an important tenet of the work and its boundaries may differ - expect your therapist to discuss this in the initial meeting.
• Terms and conditions around cancellation costs, when fees are paid and holidays will also vary, and it’s a good idea to clear this up at the start of therapy.
  If you don’t like the terms, but like the therapist, you may have a tough choice on your hands.

Our therapists have their own websites which should give you a better idea of whether they might be able to help you. However, if you’ve done your research and are still stumped as to who to choose or which therapy to go for, both Jane Edwards and Julia Bueno are on hand to talk informally, or to arrange a more thorough assessment of your needs for a fee. It may be that another practitioner or service outside of our network may suit you best, in which case we can draw on our broad knowledge and extended networks to advise where you could go from here.

You may find the following links of our two main professional bodies and Welldoing of further help:

• Welldoing
• UKCP
• BACP