John Edgar

I offer a free initial consultation of up to 30 minutes, available by telephone or online.

Please contact me by phone or email to discuss availability. I aim to respond within 24 hours.

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Life Experience

To give you a sense of my journey to becoming a counsellor, I began my working life in a plastics factory, where I worked for around 15 years. During this time, I experienced losing my job due to ill health. This became a turning point for me and led me back into education, where I first qualified as an Art & Design teacher and later trained as a counsellor.

A new chapter then began, taking me into work across a range of settings, including mental health services, schools, prisons, and cancer charities. These experiences have shaped my understanding of how life events and transitions can affect us in many different ways.

This background helps me appreciate the uniqueness of each person’s journey and the challenges they may be facing, such as anxiety, stress, bereavement, cancer, and other life difficulties.

Choosing a counsellor is an important first step towards addressing the worries, concerns, or issues you may be experiencing. Please be assured that I work in a non-directive way and will move at a pace that feels comfortable for you.

I offer a free initial 30-minute session by telephone or online. This gives you the opportunity to decide whether you would like to continue with telephone, online, or face-to-face sessions.

Sessions are held in a safe, comfortable, friendly, and none-judgmental environment.

Face-to-face appointments take place in my office, which is located in an old Victorian cottage. I find that the calmness of the setting can be especially helpful for people who may feel anxious about attending their first session. If there is anything I can do to make your first visit more comfortable, please let me know.

In the first session you find I am none-judgmental and believe in treating everyone with respect, sensitivity, and compassion. I will work at your pace and tailor the counselling sessions to meet your unique and specific needs. 

I am a supervisor working in person-centered, integrative, and creative therapies.

I bring extensive experience supervising both trainees from a range of colleges and universities across the North West, and qualified counsellors working in diverse settings including private practice, schools, colleges and universities, mental health services, and cancer charities.

In addition to counselling professionals, I have provided supervision for senior leadership and high-responsibility roles, including Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, Lead Safeguarding Officers, and Police Officers working in high-risk operational contexts. My supervision practice supports reflective practice, professional resilience, ethical awareness, and safe decision-making in complex roles.

In supervision sessions, you will find a comfortable and supportive space to bring material directly related to your client work. This may also include personal experiences, as these can influence how we work with clients. I believe it is not possible to fully compartmentalise ourselves in practice. However, we will always bring the discussion back to the client, exploring how your reflections may impact your work with them — and how the client work may, in turn, affect you.

I offer a free 30-minute consultation so we can discuss you, your current practice, the context you are working in, and your caseload. We can also explore your goals for CPD or career development, and what you would like to gain from supervision on an ongoing basis.

During this consultation, I will explain how I work and outline my areas of knowledge and expertise, including my experience in private practice. You will have the opportunity to ask any questions to help you decide whether I am the right fit for you as a supervisor, and we can begin to consider what our sessions might look like if we decide to work together.