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How we can help you

If you are experiencing emotional distress that is adversely impacting your life and studies, you may find counselling helpful. We offer therapeutic consultations, short-term counselling, self-help resources and workshops.

Counselling

Read about the counselling support we provide for students, including what happens during the initial consultation and potential next steps. 

How can counselling help you?

  • Our team of professional and experienced counsellors provide a space to explore your thoughts and feelings confidentially and without judgement. Talking to someone impartial can provide relief; the counsellor will not give you advice, but they will help to clarify your struggles and make connections between different aspects of your life. 

Issues brought to counselling

  • Counselling can be useful for acknowledging a number of different issues including:
    • depression, anxiety, obsessive thoughts or lack of sleep
    • the emotional impact of physical health problems or processing a recent diagnosis
    • family and/or relationship difficulties, sexual problems, identity issues and exploring difference
    • the emotional impact of recent life events, such as adjusting to a new culture, a bereavement or a relationship breakdown, as well as difficulties affecting your life and work balance
    • difficult emotions, such as anger or guilt or needing support dealing with dilemmas and making difficult decisions.
  • However, we also understand that you may just feel low but can’t be sure why.

Therapeutic consultation

  • The experience of counselling will begin with a therapeutic consultation which can last up to 90 minutes. During this meeting, you will have the opportunity to talk through your difficulties and to consider the support that may be most appropriate for you. This may include directing you to relevant online supportive resources, recommending a workshop, referring you to a therapeutic group or offering you short-term counselling. It is also possible that you may be referred to specialist internal or external services.
  • Sometimes the initial consultation is all that is needed to help resolve immediate issues. Your counsellor may recommend longer-term counselling and will support you in the interim, and help you locate suitable support.

Our team

Meet the team that make up our counselling service and read about the accreditation of our counsellors and supervisors.

Who we are

  • Aura Rico, Counselling Service Manager
  • Jo Myddelton, Senior Counsellor and Group Facilitator
  • Anna Humphries, Senior Counsellor and Placement Co-ordinator
  • Clare Pace, Counsellor
  • Aditi Dhar, Counsellor
  • Rhiannon Whipps, Counsellor
  • Magda Kuczek, Counsellor
  • Kelly Dieu, Honorary Counsellor
  • Gail Simmonds, Counselling Supervisor
  • Amina Abdillahi, Wellbeing Team Leader
  • Liza Wellington, Wellbeing Service Administrator
  • Scout Woodford, Wellbeing Service Administrator
  • Shaheina McGovern, Wellbeing Service Administrator

Staff credentials

  • All our counsellors are appropriately trained to work with clients within the service, and are registered members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) or an equivalent professional body.
  • Each counsellor undertakes regular supervision with an experienced clinical supervisor. This takes place in line with the BACP Ethical Framework and our Confidentiality Policy. The counsellors have access to and meet regularly with an experienced consultant psychiatrist and can make referrals, with a student's agreement, to the psychiatrist for an assessment; similarly bound by confidentiality.

Confidentiality

We are here to help you. As part of this, we comply with strict confidentiality guidelines - see our Confidentiality Policy for more information.