Counsellors use different approaches and each one can help in different ways. Approaches include:

• Person‑Centred Counselling:  A gentle, supportive approach that helps you talk through your feelings at your own pace
• CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy):  A practical approach that helps you notice unhelpful thoughts and develop new coping strategies
• Psychodynamic Counselling: Helps you explore how past experiences may influence how you feel and behave today
• Integrative Counselling: Uses techniques from several approaches so the counsellor can tailor sessions to what works best for you
• Solution‑Focused Therapy: A short‑term, goal‑focused approach that helps you build on your strengths and move toward positive change
• Mindfulness‑Based Approaches: Use breathing and grounding techniques to help manage stress, anxiety, and difficult emotions
• Trauma‑Informed Approaches: Designed to keep you feeling safe and supported if you have experienced trauma or distress
• Transactional analysis: Incorporates aspects of humanistic, cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapy, and categorises the human personality into three stats - Parent, Adult and Child, which can help you understand how you interact with others
• Humanist: Encourages people to think about their feelings, and take responsibility for their thoughts and actions, with an emphasis on self-development and achieving your highest potential rather than on problematic behaviour
• Gestalt: Helps you find a new, positive perspective on problems and bring about changes in your life

Using the information you share with us in your initial assessment, we will match you with a counsellor whose experience and approach best fit your needs. If you feel the match isn’t right, you can request a change.

Sessions typically involve talking through your thoughts, feelings and experiences with your counsellor, who will support you to explore what’s going on and find ways forward. You set the pace and there is no right or wrong way to begin. Your counsellor may also share various tools, resources, and strategies to help you manage and cope with the things you are experiencing. During the session, the counsellor will also complete an assessment form (YPCore10) with you, which will be used to track progress in areas such as anxiety, stress, worrying thoughts and sleep.

Everything you discuss with your counsellor is confidential except in specific circumstances where we are legally or ethically required to share information - for example, if there is an immediate or serious risk of harm to you or someone else. Your counsellor will always explain these limits clearly when contracting with you. In most cases, we will be able to talk to you first about our intention to share information and gain your consent. Any decisions to share information with other agencies will always be made with your best interest in mind.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel. There is a minimum notice period 24 hours before the session to let us know if you cannot attend, otherwise it will incur a cancellation fee charged to Southampton City Council. Our cancellation procedure will be explained to you when you start.

Trained counsellors have completed their Level 4/5 Diploma in Higher Education qualification. Some counsellors are also accredited with their professional membership bodies such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) or working toward accreditation.

Our experienced trainee counsellors are in the final year of completing a Diploma in Higher Education course in Counselling and provide counselling as part of their supervised clinical placement and will be working towards completing their 100hrs of counselling. Trainees receive regular support from our clinical lead and supervision from experienced Clinical Supervisors to ensure safe and effective practice to support you.

Yes. Trainee counsellors:

• Are carefully selected and vetted
• Train under strict professional and ethical guidelines
• Work under close supervision with an experienced Clinical Supervisor
• Only work with clients deemed suitable for them
• The benefits of working with a trainee is that they bring the most up to date training and information to the counselling space and treatment.

This service is funded by Southampton City Council. We will check your eligibility to accessing free counselling with the Care Leavers Counselling service once we receive your self-referral form.

As a clinical service we have a duty of care to support and protect you during sessions should you become distressed. If you are online and we don’t know where you are, we won’t be able to get you the help you need effectively and in a timely way.

Once you are matched with your counsellor, they will make arrangements with you to book sessions.

The addresses where we hold in person counselling include:

• Winchester Wellbeing Centre, 1 Priory Gardens, Parchment Street, SO23 8AU
• Solent Mind, 15-16 The Avenue, Southampton, SO17 1XF
• 28 The Avenue, Southampton, SO17 1XN

For queries, please call 0303 003 0193 or email [email protected] to contact a member of our team.