Fay Parkes

I have current availabilty across two locations. Stansted Mountfitchet near Bishop's Stortford and Great Dunmow.

I provide both face to face session and online sessions throughout the week including evenings. I currently work from Monday to Friday but can offer sessions on Saturdays and Sunday mornings.

Please contact me via email, text or phone and I'd be pleased to discuss availability with you and find a time and place that would suit you.

I am an experienced and qualified therapist/counsellor who knows from my own journey into therapy how initially daunting yet hugely beneficial it can be. Therefore, I meet each client with empathy, understanding and genuineness to help you to face the challenges of life. Alongside general counselling, I specialise in treatment and recovery from addiction.

I  support clients through a range of issues including anxiety and depression, stress and burnout, obsessive/compulsive behaviours, relationship difficulties, co-dependency, life transitions such as divorce and children leaving home, loss and low self-esteem, confidence. I support people towards positive change.

 I work with all ages, specialising in addiction, whether that be alcohol, drugs, relationships (including co-dependency) or gambling… there is a way out! If it is creating problems in your life, affecting you and those closest to you, I can help.  I provide support for the families and loved ones who are directly affected by those suffering with addiction.

I offer a safe and secure environment where you are met without judgment so that you can freely explore and discover yourself, process feelings and emotions and begin to understand yourself better. By finding effective support through healing relationship and accepting help in my own personal journey through life’s challenges, I was able to heal, grow and change for the better in a way I didn’t think was possible., I work to help others in their own recovery journeys and to find change for themselves.

Addiction counselling is about treating the mind, body and soul. It invites you into a journey that is compassionate, understanding and empathic yet challenges and educates at the same time. Firstly, I invite my clients to fully understand their illness, to see their truth before moving to fresh solutions and effective treatment. It then requires a genuine desire to be free, to be open, honest and willing for you to recover. 

Firstly, you can expect a warm and friendly approach where you will be heard and find relational support. I will seek to understand what you would like to gain from counselling and we will work together to find the best way of achieving that. To be able to heal, therapy requires work from the counsellor and the client and through that, positive empowering change can occur.

Through my own recovery journey and personal life challenges I became involved in healing and recovery communities and set out on a path that would ultimately change my life in ways that I could not have believed possible. Through finding the right healing relationships, the right support and accepting the help on offer, I changed, and changed for the better, and so today, I am working to help others find recovery for themselves.​

I believe each person has their own inherent resources and potential for change and growth. A good counselling relationship helps to activate that potential by the counsellor and client working together. I take a relational approach to my work, which means we might talk about what is happening in the relationship between us (client and counsellor) as this can often provide useful information.

I recognise it may be important for you to see a counsellor quickly. I can usually arrange our first session within a week of you contacting me. I will offer an initial consultation so that you can find out if counselling is for you, I understand that scheduling can be hard sometimes – so I offer sessions on weekends and evenings.

Please message me via e-mail or call me and I can answer questions and informally chat. if we feel we can move forward and I can help you, we can arrange an initial session together and I can then offer a course of sessions. I will not ask you to decide there and then, you are free to consider it and contact me in your time.

First Session

What to expect.....

Every first session is different, but here are some ideas of what to expect when we first meet.

My priority is to welcome you, provide genuine warmth and invite you to talk a bit about what is going on in your life and what brings you to counselling. We may discuss what brings you to counselling at this stage in your life and where you'd like to be, how you'd like to be.

My focus is on you and your needs within the sessions. You are free to explore whatever you wish, and you have control of that. I can also offer suggestions and techniques based on individual need.

We're likely to discuss what you hope to get from counselling in more detail.

I will say a bit about how I work and answer questions you may have.

As part of my commitment to practising ethically I will need to assess my suitability to work with you. You will not have to decide whether or not you want to go ahead with counselling right away. I will ask you to get in touch with me once you have had time to reflect on the first session.

Covering Bishops Stortford, Great Dunmow, Saffron Walden, Ware, Buntingford, Harlow, Sawbridgeworth, and all surrounding areas.

'There is a solution. You can be free of your addiction, and you can live a happy, joyous, and free life; you do not have to live this way anymore; there is a proven and tested way out'.