Chris Meddes

I am currently able to take on new clients. 

My working hours are Monday - Thursday 4 - 9.30pm, Friday 9am - 7pm.

When you find yourself dealing with an unexpected life event or feelings that are overwhelming such as anxiety and depression, I feel it is the power of connection in relationship that can be the greatest source of support. This belief allows us to create a therapeutic relationship where focussing on your needs is at the heart of the work together. Having experience of working in private practice, in a secondary school and with elite athletes I aim to support you in understanding your emotions and behaviours, to try to make sense of what may be going on for you underneath the surface.

My private practice is in Thame, within a comfortable air-conditioned room which is big enough to adhere to COVID regulations and social distancing. I can also offer face to face sessions in High Wycombe from a room based in the town centre, as well as offering online sessions through Zoom if that is more suited to your needs.

I aim to offer a space that feels safe, confidential, accepting and free of judgement, in the hope that therapy will feel as accessible and inclusive as possible for anyone choosing to reach out for support.

I have a huge passion for sport and offering support to process the emotional impact that can come from injury, loss of form, loss of identity, pressure to perform or having to give up the sport altogether. It can often be this element of support that is missing and yet it can be the base from which recovery can build.

My working life previous to counselling was in the corporate environment which has given me a real understanding of the pressure that comes with striving to succeed and the emotional distress it can cause both personally and professionally.

I currently work as a counsellor for the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe as well as supporting professional sportspeople through the charity Sporting Chance. Alongside these I continue to volunteer as a counsellor at Youth Enquiry Service in Wycombe, working with 13-25 year olds across a range of mental health issues.

I offer an initial free 20 minute phone conversation to find out a bit about what has brought you to therapy and to negotiate a time that would work for our sessions. Here we will also be able to discuss the potential cost of sessions as I offer a sliding scale of between £45 & £65. I have taken this decision to allow you some control over how much you are able to pay for therapy while still making it as accessible as possible to as many people as I can.

From there I offer 50 minute sessions which would ideally be weekly as this consistency and frequency supports the building of the relationship, however this too could be negotiated based on your needs and availability. 

I hope to provide supervision that is both supportive and challenging, a space to process the clinical work that you do. I believe in a collaborative approach to supervision, working with the material that you bring to explore appropriate and effective outcomes for you and the client, whether that is an ethical dilemma, feelings around working with particular issues or to acknowledge the impact the process of therapy is having.

I work face to face either in Thame or High Wycombe, or online via Zoom.

Over the past few years I have set up a private practice working with adults and young people, alongside work in both a charity and grammar school setting, increasing my experience of the ethical dilemmas and considerations that these settings can come with. 

My training is integrative and I have a particular passion for the Person-Centred and Transactional Analysis approaches which has reinforced my belief in the power of the supervisory relationship. This mirrors my therapeutic work and so gives considerations to how you experience the work with your clients, so that we can look beyond the narrative and explore the explicit and implicit process' that occur.

A first session is an opportunity to find out more about your practice, gain a greater understanding of what you require from supervision and to begin to develop the supervisory relationship so that we can make an informed decision on a way of working moving forward.

It can be a chance for you to ask questions around my therapeutic and supervisory model so that you feel comfortable in knowing whether I can meet your needs as a supervisee.

The first session will in part be a process for you to outline the demographic of clients you work with and the environments you work in, as a way for us to see where any external pressures may come from that influence the therapeutic work with the client.