Staff Counselling

The Staff Counselling Service offers what is commonly known as ‘brief therapy’ or ‘time-limited therapy’. The service is intended for all staff members, be they academic colleagues or those who are part of professional services (or other) teams. It aims to provide you with a confidential source of support for either work-related or personal matters, for example: 

• Bereavement
• Relationship issues
• Depression and low mood
• Stress and/or anxiety
• Low self-esteem and/or self-confidence
• Other matters of concern, to be explored at your discretion

Whatever your issues or concerns, our service is likely to offer you an opportunity to explore and discuss them in a comfortable, non-judgmental, and confidential space.  

As a member of staff, you might wish to discuss a work-related issue, such as a desire to work on your confidence levels or to explore the dynamics of a professional relationship.  

On the other hand, you may be dealing with issues which are more fully present in your personal life. For example, you might be experiencing depression or low mood, or you might be struggling with anxiety.  You may wish to examine relationships in your personal life, or you may be shouldering a significant life-event (such as a bereavement or divorce).   

Even if you simply have a growing sense that somehow ‘things are not quite right’, or that certain challenges hold you back persistently, you would certainly have a valid reason to consider counselling as a means of exploration and/or support.    

We can arrange for your counselling sessions to be either online or in a face-to-face setting, as suits your preferences. Either way, a counselling session is intended to be a private exploratory space which is free from interruption. That space is yours, to use at your wish, and it follows your pace and direction. Your counsellor is there to explore alongside you, rather than devising or directing a specific plan for your time together.  

The first session serves as an opportunity to clarify your needs and expectations, and to consider whether ‘brief therapy’ is an appropriate means of support for the issue(s) you wish to explore. Given the nature of this initial appointment, it will make sense to you that we refer to this as your ‘assessment’ session.  

It sometimes proves to be the case that this initial appointment serves your purposes fully.  If not, and if you wish to explore matters further, we can arrange up to six further appointments for you. Each session, including the assessment session, is scheduled for 50 minutes and appointments tend to be scheduled either weekly or fortnightly.  

We understand that there may be times when you’re unable to attend a scheduled appointment. Should that prove to be the case, we would be grateful to have as much notice as possible. Advance notice often permits us to offer the appointment to someone else. 

Whilst we will typically be happy to reschedule a cancelled appointment, please keep in mind that if you fail to arrive (or if you cancel your appointment) twice in a row without good cause, we will assume that you no longer wish to continue counselling.   

In such a circumstance, all your scheduled appointments would typically be cancelled, making them available for others. Were you to wish to resume counselling thereafter, we would ask you to contact the service as a fresh referral.   

It is understandable to be concerned about the information relating to your contacts with the Staff Counselling Service. We wish to assure you that nothing will be accessible on your staff records, under any circumstances. You are asked to complete a questionnaire which requires you to provide contact details as well as some other information (such as your gender and your ethnicity) which is collated by the service anonymously, then aggregated for statistical monitoring purposes. Within each session, counsellors tend to prepare brief summaries of what was explored, but this documentation is accessible only within the Staff Counselling Service team, where it is securely stored.  

Counsellors will not inform parties external to the service of any details whatsoever of either enquiring about, engaging with, or attending sessions via our service. Throughout your contact with the service, confidentiality remains an important aspect of our work with you.   

It can sometimes prove helpful to you that others know of your circumstances, at your sole discretion. An example might be a situation in which you wished to ask a line-manager to renegotiate your workload because of stress. Be assured that the decision to inform others would be entirely yours to make. Keep in mind that we would secure your prior written consent before disclosing such information to any third party on your behalf, should you wish for us to do so.  

That said, there may be exceptional circumstances requiring us to disclose information to others without your consent, as follows:

• Where we reasonably believe that there is a serious risk of harm to you or to others
• Where we have serious concerns for your overall wellbeing 
• Where we are obliged by law to supply information to certain authorities or persons (e.g., the Police)   

Where considered reasonable to do so, we would endeavour to secure your consent before acting in the above exceptional circumstances. 

The Staff Counselling Service recognises the importance of confidentiality for all staff using the service. We offer a confidential service whereby the information discussed, recorded, and/or stored within the Staff Counselling Service is kept confidential. That said, in rare instances information may need to be shared outside the service. There are also some clearly defined exceptions to confidentiality. We encourage you to review and familiarise yourself with the Staff Counselling Service’s confidentiality policy.