Rhoda Scantlebury-Williams

I currently offer sessions online or face to face from my office in Rusthall. I work with adults and young people aged 16 and 17.

I believe that when our behaviours or feelings are making life difficult, we benefit from space to work this through. I work psychodynamically: noticing how these behaviours and emotions sometimes come from parts of ourselves that we are less aware of. As you experience and consider those responses in therapy - you have time to attach words and understanding to whatever is going on. And as you develop the story of yourself, you have more choices in the way you respond to life and those around you.

There are different forms of counselling but the most important aspect of any therapy is a sense that you can work well with the counsellor you've chosen. An initial session gives you the opportunity to see if you feel able to work with me and gives me the chance to think about whether my approach to counselling is suited to you.

Although I primarily trained as a counsellor, I also offer neurofeedback because I believe that the body, mind, and emotions are powerfully connected. My website has more information on this.

I am a senior counsellor in a local counselling centre, a seminar leader, and a tutor for counsellors in training.

Adoption: In addition to my main counselling practice, I am an adoption counsellor and have been approved by the local authority to offer support in this area - this means that if you are an adopter, you can approach the local authority to ask for funding to work with me via the Adoption Support Fund. Please be in touch if this is something that would be helpful. As part of this, I am a qualified NVR practitioner - this is a recognised way of working with particularly challenging behaviours in children and young people.

Counselling gives you your own time and space to consider what is going on, who you are and who you want to be.​

The possibility of time and space might feel important because you're currently experiencing something where your own resources no longer feel sufficient to cope. Perhaps you see that you're responding to situations with more anxiety, anger or distress than feels entirely manageable, or it may be that you're feeling very little and have a sense of being out of touch with yourself or others. These feelings might have been triggered by an identifiable event in your life, they may have been brought about by managing a difficult situation over an extended period of time or you may be frustrated because you can’t see a logical cause.​

Clients come to me with a range of experiences such as anxiety, stress, difficulties managing relationships, trauma, grief, issues around intimacy and sex, intrusive thoughts, family conflict, questions about sense of self, depression, anger, pressure and suicidal thoughts. 

I work with parents who care for children and young people with mental health challenges including those who self-harm. I offer support directly to young people aged 16+.

In your first session with me, we consider what you hope for in coming to counselling. I might ask more questions than in another session as we think together about what's going on and how you're currently feeling. There would be time for us to begin to wonder where behaviours or feelings might stem from in the past and to notice how they are impacting the present.

If after this session we both agree that we work well together then we would fix a weekly appointment that you feel able to commit to. We might decide that a fixed number of sessions or a piece of open-ended work is more suitable. 

The length of work is up to you. Once we begin working together, if you find something difficult or painful then I would ask you to bring it to your session. Counselling is not always easy but I offer you the opportunity to work with me through the things that hurt or feel too awkward to mention.

Counselling can take place over the phone, online or face to face. Each way of doing things has strengths and weaknesses and you may notice which feels more appropriate for you. If you choose face to face work, my office is in Rusthall and I follow covid-safe guidelines.