Andrew Norman

I meet with clients in my own counselling room in Sidmouth which is comfortable, quiet, easy to find and has plenty of parking space. 

If it is easier I am able to make home visits.

I also work with clients online with Zoom. That might make it possible for you to fit counselling sessions into the time you have available, and without having to travel wherever you are in the UK. 

I see clients on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from early morning until early evening.

I am also able to offer counselling in the form of a quiet hour’s walk along a local path by the river.

I believe in making counselling as accessible as possible. So my standard rate is £45 per session, but with a sliding scale of lower rates for those in need of them, and £30 per session for students and trainee counsellors. 

I work best with the client who wants a counsellor who will move at their pace, sensing together what’s going on, and exploring the good ways to cope and gently flourish again.

I was in a pastoral care role in a local community setting for over forty years and learnt the value of empathic listening and intuitive exploration – which is what counselling is about. Anxiety, deep hurts, life-changes, relationships, loneliness, bereavement, personal meaningfulness and spirituality are the areas I find my approach to therapy can help with.

I practice Mindfulness Based Stillness Meditation myself and I support clients in finding what is calming and allows them to live hopefully. 

My therapeutic method is Humanistic. I try to avoid therapy jargon. But in practical terms I will support you to: 

• stay in touch with yourself: body, thoughts and feelings,
• be more aware and trustful of the deep goodness in you and your potential to live more fully,
• know and believe in your core values,
• listen to your internal messages to yourself,
• listen to the messages you have heard from others to yourself and internalised,
• recognise and be gentle with your vulnerabilities,
• understand and manage better your fight/ flight/ freeze response to stress and trauma,
• accept what you cannot change,
• but imagine what you might grow out of and into,
• learn to practice good ways to soothe and to nurture yourself,
• and be able to regularly check in with yourself.

See my website for more details of my therapeutic method.

Client testimonial from E VR, February 2021: “Andrew was a skilled, intelligent and very kind counsellor to me at a low point in my life. I consider myself very fortunate as I often found him leading me skilfully and professionally to find my own solutions and answers to my concerns and questions usually much to my surprise. This ability to guide me and yet show me that I was not always correct and as clear in my thinking and perceptions as I thought I was, always with a gentle smile, means that I trust Andrew absolutely. I always felt safe with him, from the first appointment."

"Andrew has excellent time management skills and I never felt rushed. The last session with him was positive and affirming with many good memories. He guided me to feel empowered again and to value myself.”

What will it be like?

I remember feeling quite nervous when I went to my own first  session of counselling as a new client. So I was grateful that my therapist welcomed me warmly, explained things clearly, and put me at my ease. I now try to do the same myself.

Our first session will be to identify what has prompted you to consider counselling, to see what you want the therapy to help with - and the right place for you to start.

We can discuss together and agree key matters such as confidentiality. These will include all the practicalities which will ensure that our sessions remain a safe space for you in line with the BACP Ethical Framework and the law relating to the protection of your data.

If you then decide that you would like to continue working with me we would agree on a helpful schedule. 

Talking to someone who really listens well is so simple but can be so helpful. It's how we are as human beings. We need to see ourselves holistically and through some of the veils that come to be there for each of us.

I hope that today might be the time for you to take a further step in that process.