GAYTON LODGE
COUNSELLING
Incorp. THE WENDY HOUSE
Services at The Lodge
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Gayton Lodge provides private general counselling and grief counselling to Adults, and incorporates The Wendy House for counselling Teenagers & Children
Adult
Counselling
The Wendy House
Child and Adolescent Counselling (11 years and above)
Creative Grief Group Counselling Sessions for both Adults and Children and Young People (CYP)
Gayton Lodge offers both remote (Via Zoom) or face to face grief counselling. If you choose to begin your counselling journey face to face, then Gayton Lodge provides a warm, safe, comfortable environment.
This may be your first experience of counselling, you may be wondering what to expect? if so, you can always call for an informal chat about counselling in general. You can also e-mail Gayton Lodge for an information pack which breaks down 'what to expect' if you are new to therapy.
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Counselling is firmly based on building a therapeutic relationship with your counsellor. Not every counsellor is the right fit for every Client, we are all human! Therefore there is never an obligation to block book sessions at Gayton Lodge.
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Your counselling journey would start with a 35 minute face to face assessment where you can meet me as your counsellor, familiarise yourself with the space, and importantly, have the opportunity to ask any questions. I will ask you to answer the questions on a short assessment form to see how I can best meet your needs.
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After this assessment appointment you are free to decide if you wish to embark upon weekly or fortnightly or monthly counselling. Session length is one hour. I also offer ad hoc one off counselling sessions at Gayton Lodge.
You are the best judge of your counselling journey length, this will be dictated by how you feel. I do believe in and offer long term therapy if this is what you feel is right for you. Equally, I am happy to offer short term therapy. There is no right and wrong way, it is what ever best suits your individual needs.
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If you choose to start counselling sessions you will receive a Counselling Agreement, containing outlining policy & safe guarding. Invoices would be sent 48 hours in advance of booked session dates.
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Your counselling journey maybe strictly talking therapy or you may wish to release your feelings or inner child through more creative methods. These are unlimited really and may include clay work, sand tray, painting for example. Some Client's may prefer creative journaling or poetry writing. Whatever feels comfortable for you is how we will mould our counselling sessions. Flexibility in talking therapy can be powerful, the aim is to safety facilitate the release of heavy emotions.
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My practice embraces metaphor and the way I often describe counselling to my Clients is analogous to carrying around with you a heavy back pack of rocks; after each session the goal is to just reach for one single rock (sometimes multiple!) and place it down, leaving each session feeling lighter. This can of course take time, that is why we will regularly review your counselling goals together at agreed sessions dates.
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For any further information please just get in touch. Hit the contact button below.
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The Wendy House is metaphorically a creative space within Gayton Lodge to explore difficult feelings in a more creative vocabulary that suits the needs of the younger Clients aged 11 years and upwards.
Sometimes depending on the child's age and developmental stage emotional vocabulary maybe hard to find. Equally, in grief work, the permanence of death can (like for adults) be very hard to process, and one that all us human beings naturally try to reject.
The first session for CYP Clients is always non-chargeable work as it will consist initially of a 35 minute talking assessment to see ethically if the Child or Young Person is personally feeling ready and able to explore their grief with a counsellor.
Autonomy/control at such a chaotic often turbulent time in a young person's life is paramount and counselling it should always be through choice to access support. The first session for any child under the age of 16 will always be with the parent/primary carer. Thereafter it will be individual counselling unless the child requests family counselling.
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Creative ways of working will always be led by the CYP client and age appropriate. Alongside talking therapy we offer for example; sand tray work, wide variety of expressive creative media for instance; pastels, crayons, paints/water colour, pens, clay, slime, play doh/therapy doh, sculpting, sewing.
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Counselling is confidential and ethics dictate the counsellor must keep the CYP Clients work confidential, however be reassured that any safeguarding concerns will always follow the safeguarding policy at Gayton Lodge
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Gayton Lodge is inclusive in respect of neurodiversity. I have experience working with children and young people who have a variety of social and educational needs. I am actively an advocate for inclusivity, in collaboration with my Client we adapt the counselling space to become as comfortable as possible to promote a safe release of emotions. For example this may be as simple as removing a ticking clock, or reducing the session length to prevent overwhelm.
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For any further information please just get in touch. Hit the contact button below.
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Gayton Lodge offers grief support group counselling work (approximately 3/4 persons per group). To register an interest for the next up and coming sessions please use the e-mail address on the contact page.
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The aim of the group is to explore as your grief within a group setting. There are initially 4 sessions at the same time each week with the same group of people.
What's involved in Group Grief Counselling?
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In the first session we devise between the group a agreement (an informal set of rules that we are all comfortable with - this is normal in counselling). An example may be 'confidentiality' , so group members agree not to repeat other group members experiences outside of sessions.
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Group sessions are generally a mixture of talking and creative therapy. The aim of group grief therapy is to support each group member to explore their grief story in a compassionate, safe, understanding space.
This involves active listening, the sharing of emotions, & exploring both shared and unique feelings.
By the 4th session we will also have been working on and creating our own personal memory boxes to take away and treasure. Clothes may get messy so please always wear something you don't mind getting messy and bring a coverall/apron to sessions.
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Group sessions are available to grieving families, flexibility of numbers to accommodate family members seeking group support. Please enquire.
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For more information and availability and dates of the next group sessions please use the contact page.