FAQ's

 I can help you to

• Be heard.

• Process the loss/bereavement and find a way of carrying the loss with you in a way that works for you. 

• Feel less anxious.

• Process a trauma you have experienced     

• Talk through a situation/issue to make sense of what has happened.

• Work with and explore your strengths.

• Change any behaviour/thoughts you feel are stopping you leading the life you want to lead.

• Find and develop new ways of coping with situations/feelings/emotions.

• Examine all your options.

• Deal with painful/difficult relationships.

• Improve your confidence/self-esteem/assertiveness

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I achieve this through getting to know you, really listening to who you are and what has lead you to this point then helping you to find ways, that work for you, to achieve your goals for the future.

Counselling is a talking therapy offered on a confidential, one to one basis, within the boundary of a contract, agreed by client and counsellor, with no judgement.  It involves you coming to my office based in Adlington, close to Chorley and Horwich (or over the telephone/Zoom) where we can talk together confidentially.  I will help you to look at your thoughts, feelings and behaviour around whatever is going on for you and find ways to deal with it in whatever way works for you.

I use several different ‘types’ of counselling in a session;

• Person-centred – which is focused on you as an individual, your strengths and resources,  and finding what works for you

• Compassion Focused Therapy looks at building skills around showing yourself and others compassion which can build feelings of safety, increased self-confidence and comfort.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which looks at the ways you think and behave that are not helpful to you and ways in which you can alter these practically

• Solution Focused Brief Therapy which looks at what you want to achieve in therapy and works towards getting you there

• Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)  which looks at how you learnt to think and feel the way you do, where you are right now vs where you want to be and then how to get you there.

• Psycho-education which teaches you why your brain is reacting the way it is and how to work with that.

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Which uses eye movement (and other forms of bilateral stimulation) to help reprocess a memory, essentially change how it is stored and how you relate to it.

Have a look here for more information on different types of therapy.

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Counselling is not something that I do to you.  I will offer you my knowledge and skills and it is your responsibility to choose what you do and how you proceed. Occasionally I may make suggestions, these should be taken as they are offered, as merely a suggestion, it is up to you if you accept them or reject them.

Counselling can be hard, it can feel like things are getting worse before they get better, this is normal.  If, however, you feel your needs and expectations are not being met I will expect you to discuss this with me.

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For more information on what counselling is see here;

For more information on EMDR see here.

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Or contact me with any questions you may have

I prefer to call it an agreement.  Our agreement will set out the boundaries of how we will work, covering things such as;

• Confidentiality

• How I store your information

• The length and frequency of our sessions

• The price of our sessions

• How to cancel and what happens if you cancel

• Complaints

We talk through this agreement together and you can add things to it if you so wish.

You are not tied into a specific amount of sessions the agreement is merely to guide how we work together in each session.

If your session is face to face it will take place in my private counselling room.  

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If your session is done over the telephone I will call you from my private counselling room and always ensure there is no one who can overhear our conversation from my end.

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If your session is done online it will be conducted over Zoom.  I use Zoom because it is recommended by my insurance and it has end to end encryption.   I have a private account that only I use.  For each individual session I create a new meeting with a new link and password that I send to an email address provided by you.  I always enable the waiting room which means I have control over who enters the session so you can be assured it will only be the two of us.

The NCPS stands for the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society and BACP for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

They are professional associations for counsellors and psychotherapists and work to ensure clients are protected and can receive safe, ethical counselling from appropriately qualified counsellors.

See https://ncps.com/and  www.BACP.co.uk for more information

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To be accredited by either body means I have demonstrated to them, through a rigorous process, that I have demonstrated high standards of competent and ethical work. 

As an accredited  counsellor I adhere to their ethical framework for good practice and their professional conduct procedure and have demonstrated that I do this to a high standard.  This code of ethics has been put in place to ensure I am working safely, it can be viewed on the NCPS and/or BACP website at

£60 per hour session,

£80 per hour and a half session, (some EMDR sessions and all life coaching) 

Payment can be via card, cash or bank transfer.

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Concessions are available for those on a low income

It does depend.  Generally they are 50 minutes to an hour however life coaching and some EMDR sessions will be 90 minutes. 

We will sit down and have a talk about what brought you to counselling and what you want.  I will explain how I work and what I can offer.  We will discuss if you want to work with me, confidentiality, dates and times for our sessions, how your information is stored and any concerns/questions you may have.  We will also look at setting some goals for what you want to achieve in counselling.

I work out of an office in Adlington, close to Chorley and Horwich.  Alternatively I also conduct sessions online via Zoom and over the telephone.

The content of our sessions is confidential.  There are some exceptions to this, such as if you or someone else's life is at serious risk, there is criminal activity or a safeguarding risk.  I will discuss these exceptions further at our initial meeting and you can ask any questions about it at any point.

Any other information will not be passed on without your consent.

All your personal information is stored securely according to GDPR (2018) regulations

If you are unable to attend a session please try to give at least 24 hours’ notice, I will endeavour to do the same.  I reserve the right to charge the session fee for late cancellations. You can contact me on 07834720148 or via email at amethystcounselling.ruth@gmail.com

If you don’t attend a session and have not contacted me I will contact you within 24 hours

If you wish I can offer a free text reminder service for appointments.

I can still work with you if you have a mental health diagnosis depending on your individual need.  We would need to discuss your needs at the initial consultation.
If you are receiving care from the mental health team I may need permission from you to communicate with them (though I will not be discussing the exact content of our sessions)

If you are not happy with the service, feel my way of working isn’t working for you or you wish to make a complaint please discuss it with me in the first instance.

Formal complaints can be submitted to the  NCPS here or the BACP here

The NCPS and BACP have more information and information sheets on things such as how to get the best from your therapist and what to therapists mean by professional boundaries (click on the links for more details)

If you need help and support in between sessions, there are several support services available including;

• The Samaritans – 116 123

• Papyrus - 0800 068 4141

• The Crisis Team (Chorley) - 01772 773433

• The Start team - 01772 676173 (9am-5pm Monday-Friday)

• The Haven (mental Health support) - 0330 008 3672

• SANEline – (Out of hours mental health support 4:30pm – 10:30pm) –0300 304 7000

Still have more questions? Get in touch and I’ll be happy to answer them