How therapy works at The Clearing

Some people come to therapy with a prepared list of items to discuss and others will arrive having no idea what they will talk about. Both is absolutely fine with us. We're here to help you to get started.

It's completely normal to be nervous about starting therapy.

As therapists at The Clearing, we've all had our own personal therapy, so we know exactly how you feel. We'll be here to put you at ease.

Most of our counsellors are trained in depth therapy. This means that outside of exploring the here and now situation, we might also look at past experiences and relationships, family dynamics, current relationship patterns and dreams.

The process is always organic so we'll only go to these places when appropriate to the work - there is no hard and fast rule or strict protocol to follow. We'll be following your lead.

In all honesty, this is usually a gut feeling thing. 

A good place to start (if you know what you want help with) is to use our filter search to narrow down which therapists work with the issues you're struggling with. After this, look through our profiles and see who resonates with you the most.

This unfortunately isn't easy to predict. It's a 'how long is a piece of string' situation.

All of our therapists are trained in long term and brief therapy, so if you need to limit the number of sessions you have to a certain number, this can be accommodated. 

In most instances though, we'll work in an open-ended way with you, allowing therapy to naturally come to an end when the work is done.

This varies from therapist to therapist based on their qualifications and level of experience. You can view each therapists' fees over on the Our therapists page.

Our team is based across the North East. 

Annette works from Gosforth, Newcastle; Joanne is based in South Shields and Dr Rhian is based in rural County Durham just outside of Consett.

The rest of the team works solely remotely offering online or telephone appointments.

If these locations don't work for you, we all offer remote sessions online and over the phone.

Yes.

Prior to the pandemic we all worked predominantly in person and were unsure about online therapy due to concerns that it would be harder to build a therapeutic relationship remotely.

Covid forced our hands on this and thankfully we've found that counselling can be just as potent online as it is face to face. Now that we are all so used to communicating via video call, conducting therapy online doesn't feel all that different to in person. 

As long as you're making the calls in a quiet, confidential place, where you are not going to be overheard or interrupted, you'll still be able to take the conversation where you need to go for therapy to be fruitful.

Yes, everything we discuss is completely confidential. We would only need to break that confidentiality if we were concerned about your safety or the safety of someone else.

We'll send you all the information you need about confidentiality and GDPR when you make your first booking. Your therapist will then talk you through this at the start of therapy (typically in the first session after the consultation).

That's absolutely fine. You're welcome to contact a member of the team with any questions you have prior to booking using our Contact Form.

There's also no obligation for you to continue on in therapy or book in again after the initial consultation, if it doesn't feel right for you. Your therapist will be happy to signpost you elsewhere if necessary.