Frequently Asked Questions | Ashwood Therapy

What sort of issues can I bring to therapy?

Ashwood Therapy specialises in assisting people with a high IQ / high level of general intelligence. Clients with a high IQ often perceive things differently, and Rob is particularly skilled in aiding such individuals who may be struggling with wellbeing difficulties such as depression and anxiety, and also those dealing with work-life balance and relationship issues. He is skilled in dealing with the issues surrounding personal growth and life stage changes, which is helpful if you are aiming to become more assertive or to develop self-confidence or self-esteem. Rob also has experience supporting clients following the death of a child, infant or young person.

Online therapy frees people from the need to attend a consulting room which may be some distance away from where they live. Online counselling can be conducted in the comfort of your own home, and means that you can schedule a session to fit in with your other commitments such as work, childcare or other roles that may form part of your daily routine. It is also useful when you are wanting to access a native English-speaking counsellor for therapy yet are living abroad, as location is no bar to accessing online counselling.

Rob believes that with the right conditions and support you can find your own way through your current difficulties. His belief is that the answers to what you face lie within you, whether those answers are to find a way to effect change in your current situation, or to learn to live in a more accepting way with something that cannot be changed. Rob will not give advice or push you in a particular direction, but rather will aim to foster a respectful and non-judgemental relationship between client and counsellor that will give you the opportunity to grow in a direction of your own choosing.

Some clients choose to engage in therapy for a brief period, whereas others opt to work through things over the longer term. The duration of therapy and your expectations of it can be discussed in the first online session, and you are always free to stop – or pause – your therapeutic work at any time. Rob will review the work undertaken with you in every sixth session, to ensure you are benefitting from the therapy in the way you would like. Some people therefore find it helpful to think of therapy initially as a six session undertaking. There is a 10% reduction in the fee for counselling with Ashwood Therapy when sessions are purchased in a block of six should you wish to take advantage of this.

Individual video and instant messaging (text) chat sessions are priced at £56 (GBP) each. One therapeutic email response is charged at £56 (GBP). Payment is made when you book your session slot. Payments are processed using the secure payment processor Stripe. This system allows you to pay for your therapy using a U.K. or international credit or debit bank card. There is a 10% discount available on block bookings of six sessions, meaning that six video call or instant messaging sessions are charged at £302 (GBP), and six email responses are charged at £302 (GBP). Rob offers a free, no obligation initial consultation by video call or instant messaging (text) chat so that you can try out what it's like to connect online.

When accessing therapy it is important that you feel comfortable enough to disclose personal and private things, with the knowledge that they will not be shared with others. Your trust and your privacy are taken very seriously at Ashwood Therapy, and before you commence any therapeutic work Rob will make sure that you are fully aware of the service policy on confidentiality and its limits. The encryption technology used at Ashwood Therapy ensures that your communication with Rob is secure.

A free, no obligation initial consultation can be booked so you can speak to Rob in person about your current situation. Ashwood Therapy can also be contacted via the website secure contact form. Rob will be happy to respond to any questions you may have via email as you decide whether accessing online counselling with Ashwood Therapy is right for you.

Many therapists offer counselling sessions which last for 50 minutes. This approach is known as ‘working to the therapeutic hour', and leaves 10 minutes between one client and the next in which the therapist can prepare for the following session. As you may appreciate, there is a certain amount of 'getting into' a therapy session, and also an element of 'winding down' at the end of the session. This period of gearing up as the session begins is of course a natural one, and as your therapist Rob has a responsibility to ensure that you are in a place at the end of the meeting to feel comfortable in logging off from the session, as you may have shared some difficult or challenging information. By extending the session time from 50 to 60 minutes, this allows for more therapeutic time at 'relational depth', or - to use plainer language - a larger middle part of the session in which to work on what you have brought to that session to discuss. Online counselling sessions at Ashwood Therapy last for a full 60 minutes, and you will be able to video call / text chat with Rob for the whole of that time. The online session booking system Rob uses ensures that there is always ample time between the clients he sees so that he can offer his full focus to the session at hand.

Rob is based in the United Kingdom (U.K.), and is a registered, accredited member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP). Rob can and does provide therapy to English-speaking clients around the globe, yet as legal and regulatory frameworks differ from country to country and territory to territory, a decision over whether it is possible to provide counselling services to each individual client is made on a case-by-case basis. Ashwood Therapy does not currently provide its counselling services to clients located in the U.S.A. or Canada. Counselling is only provided to individual clients aged 18+ and not to couples, groups or families.