Service Charges and Fees
One-to-One Counselling
All of the one-to-one counselling services are charged at the same rates, so the costs don’t change if you decide to use a different approach. Face to face counselling at the office is the same price as video or telephone counselling, or any of the other one-to-one services. The technology or location may be different but the quality and client satisfaction with the counselling is exactly the same.
How long a session should you book?
Traditionally, counselling sessions were 50 minutes, and lots of therapists continue to offer 50 minute appointments, and might schedule 8 or more clients in a day. In order for me to provide the highest standard of therapy, I limit the number of clients that I see each day. This means that I schedule fewer daily appointments than most other services, and can make your 1 hour sessions last a full hour. Despite this, experience shows that clients are often in full flow when the hour is up and we have to stop and try to pick up the threads in the next session.
In order that you should get the most out of the booking, and to avoid the frustration of having to stop after an hour, I also offer 90 minute sessions. Most people will have done enough by 90 minutes to have explored some issues and said everything that they want to say for the day without leaving exhausted – because therapy can often be hard work!
Longer sessions, of 2 or 3 hours are mainly used for creative work and ecotherapy, although I am happy to explore longer sessions with you – perhaps if you were going away, or had an event coming up, and you wanted to work on something before it happened. For ethical reasons I don’t encourage booking longer sessions unless we have discussed your needs in advance as that would potentially be overwhelming.
Octopus Therapy – One-to-One Counselling Charges
60 minutes – £50
90 minutes – £75
120 minutes – £95
180 minutes – £125
These charges are for One-to-one, telephone, video, and text counselling services. “Counselling where you are” and Ecotherapy sessions may need to include travelling time, but this would be discussed with you prior to booking.
Octopus Therapy – Group Counselling Charges
Group counselling enables clients to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences with a group of people. There are advantages and disadvantages to this format, depending on your own views and what you need from counselling. Some clients attend the group and have lots to say, others attend and say little or nothing, because they prefer to listen and be with their own thoughts. There’s no pressure on anyone to join in, but if you decide to contribute you will find the group to be supportive and non-judgmental.
Our groups are facilitated by two colleagues for each session. We have two staff members per group so that if anyone needs individual support for any reason there’s always another Octopus Therapy facilitator available to continue to work with the rest of the group.
Group counselling sessions last 90 minutes – 1.5 hours – and cost £10 per person. In order to give everyone space and time to contribute, groups are limited to a maximum of 8 clients per session.
Octopus Therapy – Supervision Charges
Supervision is £45 for 90 minutes (1.5 hours) and this is for 1:1 Supervision either in person, or by video or phone.
For the first 5 supervisees who contract to work with me in 2024 I offer the first 6 months free of charge and the next 6 months at £20 per month – that works out at just £10 per month for the first year!