Jo Bates

I am a qualified, integrative counsellor and a registered member of the BACP. I work from my consulting room based in Hadleigh, Suffolk.

There is no right or wrong reason to seek counselling and I firmly believe that it can be beneficial to everybody. Whether you have reached a point of crisis in your life, or maybe you just feel discontent and don’t know why, counselling offers you an opportunity to speak freely and be heard without judgement and in a confidential space. My role is to create an environment where you can feel safe to explore your thoughts and feelings, even the ones that you feel might be unacceptable elsewhere in your life. Together, we can challenge what you would like to change as well as learn to accept and respect yourself too. 

Our first meeting is about establishing your goals and for me to find out a little bit about you. It’s also really important that you feel that I am the right counsellor for you. If together we feel that we are a good fit, then we will arrange a time and frequency for your sessions.

Sessions are 50 minutes and are usually on a weekly basis in the first instance. From day one, we will be working towards a time when you don’t feel the need to come to counselling any more and that may be after a few weeks, or over a longer period. Sometimes a few sessions are all that is needed, sometimes a deeper exploration and longer time together is of more benefit. Until we begin working together, there’s really no way of knowing. The period of time you choose to come to therapy, is entirely decided by you.

We can meet in person in my comfortable consulting room just outside Hadleigh, online or by telephone, whichever works best for you. Online and telephone therapy has become increasingly popular and, in recent times, has been the only option at times. It offers the opportunity and convenience to have a session from wherever you are, even if you are not at home. However, if you’re online or the session is over the telephone, it’s really important that you can ensure you have a confidential space where you won’t be disturbed so that you can talk openly and freely. I would also advise trying to ensure that you can allow yourself a few moments after the session to gather your thoughts and take a little time to process the content of the session before moving straight back into your day.