Richard Safhill

Offering daytime and evening face to face appointments, I can discuss with you a time that can work for us both. 

I work from an office at Clifton Moor in York, which offers easy parking and disabled access.

In addition, I offer remote sessions via zoom or telephone - please enquire for details. 

I recommend weekly or fortnightly sessions, to be able to develop momentum in our work - we can initially contract for a set number of sessions, usually six, to review after this point. 

I am a BACP accredited practitioner and offer a high quality and professional counselling service, supporting people with a range of issues. These include anxiety and depression, addictions, historic abuse, relationship problems and work issues. As a humanistic counsellor, I build a safe and supportive space where you can talk freely about your problems at your own pace. Working with the 'whole person' rather than a collection of symptoms, I firmly believe that our choices and responses make sense when we take time to explore them. Working existentially, I am particularly skilled in helping people who are going through major changes in their lives. This could be a change of career, significant loss or end of relationship. Exploring together, I can help you to find ways to create new meanings in your live and to reconnect with the world around you. I firmly believe that what feels like a crisis can in time lead to new growth and a life more connected with your values. 

For students who require a set number of sessions for their training, I can offer a discount for a block booking if sessions are held online. 

For further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

In our work together, you can expect a supportive and caring environment to help you process your difficulties. As our work develops, I also offer constructive challenge to help you to become open to looking at your problems from different angles, which can lead to new insights and help to find a way forward. Drawing on my own life experience, I am skilled in helping people to navigate major life changes - these can including grief and loss, career change and end of a relationship. I firmly believe that what feels like a crisis can lead to a time of growth and regeneration, when our experiences are fully explored. 

In the first session, you can expect a space to talk freely about what is concerning you. I find that this can be very helpful in itself and that the act of voicing your problems can offer significant relief. From there, I help you identify key themes that will then provide focus for our work going forward. If you wish to meet initially to see if we are the right fit as therapist and client, I offer a free 15 minute Zoom or telephone consultation to help you decide and ask any questions you may have. I keep brief notes on sessions and ask for emergency contact details, but do not undertake a lengthy assessment, meaning we can go into the work from the very first session.

I am based out of Regus offices in Clifton Moor, York. The office has full disability access as well as free parking and amenities close by. 

My aim as a supervisor is to help you to grow in confidence as an independent practitioner and to use and recognise your unique qualities as a counsellor, firmly believing the importance of bringing ourselves and our unique experience into our work. Having supported a number of students through their counselling training, I help you to work through ethical dilemmas that present themselves as well as managing safeguarding and risk. Issues around training and placement provision can often present themselves and I help supervisees navigate these aspects also. As an experienced counsellor who integrates person-centred and existential approaches, I use the seven-eyed model as a foundation for our work together. This enables us to explore the relational dynamics of the client with themselves, others and the wider world. This includes a particular focus on the relationship between you and the client and how this acts as a microcosm for the client's wider way of relating to others. I also explore how the relationship between you and the client is then mirrored in our relationship as supervisor/supervisee. Working existentially, I help you to frame these issues from a wider frame of exploring the client's way of being in the world, informed by their upbringing and attachment patterns. From a person-centred perspective, I place our supervision relationship as central, using our relationship as a foundation to develop curiosity about the client's way of relating as well as your growing edges as a practitioner. 

I am a highly experienced practitioner with a diploma in supervision, aligned with the BACP framework for supervision. From my own practice experience, I have extensive knowledge of working with Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) as well as in private practice. I have worked with client issues including: trauma and historic abuse including childhood sexual abuse; supporting clients in or leaving domestic abuse situations; grief and end of life issues; addiction problems including alcohol, drugs and gambling. I draw upon this practice experience to help you decide how to proceed with similar issues in your own work, whilst still holding on to a phenomenological perspective that each client is unique and that no two issues are the same. My aim is to help you to develop and have confidence in your own way of working as well as identifying areas for development. Placing relationship at the centre of my way of working, I help us to explore blocks in your work with clients through a relational lens, using the seven-eyed model to look at the client's issue from multiple perspectives. To support my own development as supervisor, I have monthly peer and professional supervision, as well as being a member of a group with three other experienced supervisors from around the country. I believe this ensures an ethically robust way of working that supports your professional development and your clients' wellbeing and safety. 

Before the first session, I offer a written contract for our work which clearly outlines what you can expect from our work together. As my approach is relational and explorative, I welcome challenge and aim from the outset to develop a secure relationship where you can explore your work without fear of judgement. I believe this helps to cultivate an open way of working for you to explore your own triggers and aspects that are out of awareness. This in turn helps your work to feel more held and supported and ensure the best interests of the client are met. I offer a discounted rate of £45 for student counsellors.