Susan Schofield

I am a warm, relational counsellor. I offer Walk and Talk counselling, face-to-face counselling, telephone and zoom counselling. I wonder which approach will work best for you and your lifestyle. My website has more details of my approach as you work out which counsellor is a good fit for you.

In terms of methodology, I am integrative counsellor. In practice, this means that although you will see hundreds of books on my bookshelves on different approaches, I get to know you and integrate things that work best for you and the challenges you are facing. 

If you are generally depressed or anxious, we will start in a very person-centred manner, exploring your feelings so that you can grow in self-awareness and self-compassion. This will lead you to best understand yourself and your own path forward. If you have developed a phobia, CBT would be effective in gradually developing the confidence to overcome it, alongside the self-compassion and an awareness of how the phobia first came about.

If you are a creative, we integrate Gestalt and creative approaches! If relationship issues are at the heart of your heartache, we can look at Transactional Analysis which is a very visual, easy way for you to explore your relationships. Some of you will be looking for a toolbox of grounding and breathing techniques for when stress becomes intolerable. Then we can look at where the stresses come from and how they are manifesting in your life and your health.

I will accept you just as you are. I consider it to be a privilege to be alongside clients as they learn to accept themselves and find a way to survive the pain they are facing and discover their hopeful way forward.

If you look at my website fernwoodcounselling.co.uk, you will see the therapeutic garden room in my house. We can look out on the garden in all seasons and you will find it a safe, welcoming place to be yourself, totally accepted without judgement.

Some of my clients choose to access counselling on the telephone or zoom. Caring responsibilities, work or location make this the most accessible option for them and we still build a strong relationship and can fully access the hope and connection of the counselling process. 

I offer Walk and Talk counselling in Leonardslee gardens, Horsham Park and Warnham Nature Reserve. Each of these places offers a beauty of their own and the health of being outside walking, pausing or sitting as feels appropriate. Two in particular also offer lakes to walk alongside. You will access all the therapy in addition to experiencing gentle exercise and fresh air. We can experience the seasons together, the daffodils, bluebells, camelias as they come and go. There may be parallels we can draw with some of the issues that are affecting you right now. The beauty of great trees tends to lift the spirit alongside the therapeutic work you and I will be engaging in.

Your preferred way of accessing counselling may change over time and I can respond to that. Most clients benefit most from weekly counselling sessions to start with, although this may not be possible for those with shift work. Once we have established a good relationship, I am happy to be flexible. Some clients prefer to meet every other week or once a month once they feel they are on a positive path forward. Some clients like to come back for a few sessions a year on from our main work together. I will try to accommodate your needs where I can.

Some clients prefer a short course of counselling with a particular focus. Others choose to stay for long-term therapy. We are all so different and our challenges look very different. 

I offer a free twenty minute phone call so that you get a chance to ask any questions and make an initial connection. The relationship is key in counselling so this is a time for you to tell me what brings you to counselling and to explore what you are looking for in counselling. I work in different ways depending on who is in front of me, your personality and what your needs are. 

Our first counselling session will be a chance for you to expand on this and for me to get to know you. This might be face to face in my garden room, on a walk at a mutually agreed place, on zoom or on the telephone. I will put you at your ease and explain our counselling contract so that you feel confident of confidentiality and safety. The first session can be nerve wracking for some clients. Tell me how you are feeling about it!  I will be gently asking you how I can make it a gentle, safe, welcoming space for you. I have been known to sit on the floor alongside a client as this was what they needed at that moment. I wonder what your ideal therapeutic space would look like. If you tell me, I will endeavour to make it a place you look forward to each week.