Counselling provides an opportunity to discuss issues that may be troubling or causing you problems. Your counsellor will not know you or have any involvement with the issues you wish to discuss, or offer advice but instead will provide a space where you are able to explore and reflect on the difficulties you are experiencing.

Once you have decided you would like counselling you will be offered an assessment before you commence. The assessment provides the opportunity to decide whether counselling would be appropriate for you or not.

Once you commence ongoing counselling you will see the same counsellor (this will not be the counsellor you saw for the assessment). You meet weekly at the same time and the same place, each session usually lasts for 50 minutes. This space is held for you each week and as a result if you are unable to attend for any reason you will be expected to pay for the missed sessions.

All GCS counsellors are supervised and managed within GCS and work within the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Framework. Most of our counsellors are qualified but some are in training and work to the same high standards as qualified counsellors.

There is no one answer to this question as it depends on the issues you wish to address and the depth to which you wish to explore them and other related matters. GCS offers open ended counselling but if it is more appropriate we are able to offer a more focused, fixed term option usually up to 12 weeks.

GCS has counselling venues in Stroud, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Cirencester. You will be offered an appointment at the venue most convenient to you if at all possible.

Once you have registered for counselling you will be offered an appointment for an assessment relatively quickly, usually within two weeks. How quickly you will be offered an appointment for ongoing counselling is dependent on your availability and the demand on the service. Evening appointments can be available but are usually in high demand therefore may incur a delay.

Gloucestershire Counselling Service is a registered charity (No. 1109904) and one of its principal aims is to make quality counselling accessible to the people of Gloucestershire.

We do not receive any government grants so we rely on the fees we charge to the people using the service.  Our fees aim to be progressive and socially responsible.  To allow us to operate this way, we apply a sliding scale of fees.

Please note that you will be expected to pay for missed or cancelled sessions, except for sessions cancelled by your Counsellor.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of your counselling you should discuss this with your counsellor as it may be related to the issues you have brought to counselling. If this is inappropriate or does not resolve the matter you can write to the Head of Counselling at GCS explaining your concerns. If you are still unhappy you can use GCS’s formal Complaints Procedure.