Sandra Hayes-Davis

My role as a couple’s and relationship therapist is to remain neutral and provide the right environment for you both to journey together through these difficult times, to facilitate a deeper understanding of yourselves and to improve interactions within your relationship. My aim is to gently yet effectively help you uncover underlaying factors that influence your connections, such as family background and personal behaviour patterns, unravel and reframe your thoughts and feelings, rebuild your self-esteem and confidence and find a way forward.

Together we will explore and cultivate a more meaningful, loving and understanding relationship with yourselves and others.

I would describe my working style as being respectful and collaborative. Whilst I am supportive, empathetic, and compassionate, I can also be very direct, interjecting when needed, so it's important to let your feelings be known to me.

Counselling is all about change, changing things that we can and accepting those we cannot. Once you have an awareness and understanding of why things are happening in your life, you have the opportunity to make changes. For whatever reason you decided to have counselling, positive change will occur when you commit to changing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Many of my clients come to me feeling hopeless, lost in their relationships, unable to move forward or reconnect with their partners. Whatever difficulties you are experiencing in your relationship, whether you’re dealing with intimacy issues, recovering from an affair, or feeling stuck and unable to move forward, I am here to support you.

Couples and relationship therapy is suitable for any couple, heterosexual or same-sex, or any family, such as mother and daughter.

The first session is about gathering information, understanding your issues and underlying emotions, as well as for us to set some goals for therapy and the focus of our work together.

I may give you homework to do in the form of exercises, books, podcasts or body work. It is important to do your homework as it forms part of the work. Sessions and can go by fast. Homework is a way of augmenting the hard work done in session, and most importantly, it keeps you connected to your mind and body. 

Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm

I specialise in helping people with anxiety, low self-esteem and relationships issues and I often find that these go hand in hand. Anxiety and/or low self-esteem often impacts on our relationships and difficulties in our relationships often cause us anxiety and low self-esteem. In addition, there are often underlying factors such as stress, depression, grief and childhood trauma. This list is not exhaustive, and I work holistically with all these issues.

I work in a supportive and facilitative way but can also be direct and provide gentle challenge, working with young people (16+) and adults, individuals, couples and families. I offer both short term (6-8 weeks) solution focused therapy, using CBT tools and longer-term person-centred therapy, as well as other creative ways of working. I have a vast array of tools, techniques and templates for all manner of issues that have proven to be incredibly beneficial in repairing and healing the lives of those I have worked with.

I believe that therapy is about forming a relationship, working with a person you can both trust and feel a connection with is vital. I would also say it is probably the most important element of successful therapy, so I offer a complimentary 15-minute telephone introduction for us to get to know each other. I can answer any questions or fears you may have whilst you decide if I am the right person for you. If after speaking on the phone you decide you’d like to move things forward I offer an initial one off paid, no obligation session, we will be going through some history and the presenting problem. It is also an opportunity to get to know each other a little to see if you feel comfortable with me and want to continue.

Please contact me or visit my website for further information. www.sandrahdcounselling.co.uk

 Anxiety and low Self-esteem

I understand from personal experience how debilitating anxiety and low self-esteem can be. I also know how frustrating it is when someone suggests the common coping strategies, such as square breathing and expecting you to magically feel better.

We are all different and what works for one person may not work for another. I will help you explore what may be causing your anxiety and/or low self-esteem, and together we will work in various ways to overcoming this. 

Relationship issues

Our relationships with our family, friends and work colleagues are a hugely important part of our lives. When we are having issues with one of these relationships, it tends to impact on other areas.

Many people come to me with relationship issues difficulties with their relationship with their: spouse/partner, parents, siblings, children, work colleagues or boss, and it’s making them miserable.

We explore these difficulties and what may be causing them so that changes can be made. Whilst we cannot change the way another person behaves and reacts, we can influence these behaviours and responses by adapting how we behave and communicate.

Couples counselling

Many of my clients come to me feeling hopeless, lost in their relationships, unable to move forward or reconnect with their partners. Whatever difficulties you are experiencing in your relationship, whether you’re dealing with intimacy issues, recovering from an affair, or feeling stuck and unable to move forward, I am here to support you.

Couples and relationship therapy is suitable for any couple, heterosexual or same-sex, or any family, such as mother and daughter.

I offer a complementary 30 minute telephone introduction. Sessions are then £80 per hour.

I offer a free, no obligation, 15-minute informal telephone consultation. This will give us an opportunity to  briefly discuss what is troubling you and how I can help. Just as importantly, it will help you decide whether I am the right counsellor for you.

Should you choose me as your counsellor, your first session will involve me taking a personal history and agreeing how we will work together, before we start working on your issues. If you decide at this point that you do not wish to continue, that is okay. You are not obligated to attend a specific number of sessions and can stop your counselling at any time.

Please do feel free to look at my website www.sandrahdcounselling.co.uk  to find out more about what I offer or contact me regarding any questions or queries you may have.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm

I provide clinical supervision for counsellors and trainee counsellors.

My approach is primarily relational, which offers respect for you and your client group, a safe space to cry, laugh, get angry and rejuvenate, as a normal response to the emotional stresses of working with people in difficult situations, and congruence to supportively challenge that practice where necessary.

I believe that supervision needs to be normative, informative and restorative, and work mainly with the seven eyed and the cyclical models of supervision. 

I believe that Supervision is a collaborative process of support and learning. It is protected time and space for the supervisee (practitioner) to reflect on their practice, develop their competence, skills, knowledge, and creativity within the supervisory relationship (alliance), enabling them to provide a safe and ethical service to clients, whist continuously developing themselves and their practice.

The purpose of supervision is to help and support the supervisee to:

• monitor the needs of their clients
• monitor and improve the effectiveness (quality) of their work
• reflect on their work, in order to develop their knowledge, skills and competence
• maintain ethical and professional standards

• As well as to provide support and restoration to help the supervisee:
• manage the psychological impact of their work on their own well-being
• deal with a personal crisis that may be impacting on their work
• develop effective self-care strategies and build resilience. 

I offer a complementary 15-minute introductory call to answer any questions you may have, to help you determine whether I am the right supervisor for you. 

Sessions are £60 an hour or £80 for 90 minutes.