About Us
Therapy Topics
Answers to common questions about therapy/counselling, low-cost options and the Contemporary Therapy Network.
Good question! We know that looks a bit odd but let us explain. To qualify as a specialist sex and relationship therapist you need to qualify as a general counsellor first. CICS Diploma in Pluralistic Psychotherapy leads to a qualification as a general counsellor. Students on this course need to complete 100 hours of clinical practice to qualify. So they work with our clients on themes like anxiety, depression, grief and relationship problems, offering low cost counselling whilst they are in training.
The words ‘therapy’, ‘counselling’ and ‘psychotherapy’ are all used to mean the same thing really; sitting with a professional listener who can help you to unravel your thoughts and feelings to improve your mental wellbeing. Counselling is a talk based form of therapy.
Counselling offers a private, non-judgemental space to talk through your concerns with a trained professional. Through these conversations, you gain insight into your emotions, thoughts, and actions. By providing emotional support, enhancing coping skills, increasing self-understanding, and helping you find practical ways to address challenges such as anxiety, depression, grief or relationship struggles, counselling can make a meaningful difference to our lives.
In the context of counselling and psychotherapy, sex therapy is usually called ‘psychosexual therapy’. Psycho means mind and therapy means talking therapy. There is no touch in psychosexual therapy. It’s a talk based therapy just like general counselling. The difference is that psychosexual therapists support our clients with sexual problems, such as painful sex, low desire, problems with erections, early ejaculation and difficulties with orgasm.
Our low cost general counselling service is provided by our student counsellors who are in the clinical practice stage of their Diploma in Pluralistic Psychotherapy. Our low cost sex and relationship service is run by students completing our Diploma in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy. They are all qualified general counsellors already.
Our low cost general therapists are in the second year of their qualifying Diploma in Pluralistic Psychotherapy. They can only start seeing clients when their tutors are confident they are ready.
Counselling can be expensive. It can sometimes take a while for the threads of our concerns to be unravelled and weekly therapy costs can soon stack up. What trainee therapists lack in experience they gain in the freshness of their knowledge. They are closely monitored in supervision and by their tutors and are required to evidence their competence to qualify. Our low cost sex and relationship therapists are already qualified counsellors, so they have that experience to draw on whilst they are learning to work with sex related problems and with couples and multiple partnered people. For more information on the advantages of working with a therapist in training read this blog.
You might be better suited to working with a qualified Network team member. We know every professional in our Network. They have either trained with CICS, teach with us or are a trusted colleague.
We will provide you with a thorough assessment first, so we can work out who in our Network can best support you. It is likely that if you have a complex mental health history, you would be better supported by a qualified member of our Network.
Absolutely. Confidentiality is central to all forms of counselling. Your therapist will keep brief notes of your sessions that are stored securely. Our therapists in training may ask your permission to audio record some of your sessions as part of their training requirements. You are not obliged to agree and refusing to be recorded will not affect your ongoing therapy with our service.
Assessments for the low cost service are £50 for one-to-one therapy and £60 for couples. Thereafter, the session fee is calculated based on your individual annual income for one to one therapy and household income for couples therapy.For one to one sessions, a minimum fee of £25 is charged plus £1 for every £1000 of annual income to a maximum of £45. For couple sessions a minimum fee of £40 is charged plus £1 for every £1000 of annual income to a maximum of £60.
