Stephen Goss

My usual consulting hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after 1000a.m. 

Counselling has no magic and I offer no exceptional solutions. Most of those offers are people trying to "sell" a way of thinking or of living, or perhaps even just trying to get you to give them money in exchange for some equivalent to snake oil. Counselling, on the other hand, is just talking to someone about your problems. If it sounds like that would be a welcome thing, it may be that it would suit you.

It is helpful if that person is good at listening to you and at helping you look at whatever you want to discuss, without judging you and without trying to encourage you down a particular path. That's why I made sure I received good training before starting to do this work, way back in 1993, and I keep my skills up to scratch with on-going professional development. 

Whether that means I will be a good counsellor for *you* is, of course, a much more personal matter and if you contact me, we will spend a little time making sure that we are likely to work well together. I won't take your money for sessions if I don't think I will be able to help you.

I was originally trained in what is often referred to as "Person-Centred Counselling", which means that I will be focusing intensely on you, on what you want to bring to me, and on the developing "landscape" of your story and how it unfolds between us.

Since my first training, I spent a significant part of my early career developing pluralist ways of understanding how counselling and helping can work best. I now describe myself as a pluralist counsellor, researcher and supervisor. The upshot is that I draw on different approaches to working with clients and work with each to find the best way of understanding what is happening and how to move forward.

I have also spent a lot of time working on how counsellors can use technology - like video links or telephones - to help people really well. As a result, a lot of my counselling and supervision work is done over the Internet.

I am happy to work by telephone, video, email, text-chat (SMS), in-person or as 鈥渉ouse calls鈥� at your home or workplace if we can be sure of adequate privacy. (鈥淗ouse calls鈥� are priced differently to account for my travelling time and don't suit everyone.)

Unless we make a different arrangement, counselling sessions are typically:

路 50 to 60 minutes in length

路 Weekly, twice weekly, fortnightly or monthly

How often we meet will be decided on the basis of what suits you best when we start working together and it is something you may want to review from time to time.

The first session is only charged for if we decide to proceed. If either of us decides not to go ahead for any reason at all, there is no charge for this first session.

Our first session will be a chance for us both to decide if working together will be a good fit and feels right. In that first session we will probably discuss:

路 Why you are seeking counselling now

路 A bit about you: what makes you 鈥渢ick鈥� and how you generally deal with things

路 What "success" for our work together would look or feel like

路 Whether we are a good fit

I sometimes offer counselling on a time-limited basis (eg 6 sessions booked in advance), in which case our last session will usually include a review of our work together. If we are working on an open-ended basis, on the other hand, we can review our work from time to time, looking at where we began and where we have got to. These reviews can form an important part of therapy and help me know whether we are working well, or if anything needs to change. You can raise how the counselling feels for you at any time, of course, and don't need to wait for a review.

My usual consultation hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1000 a.m. or by prior arrangement if exceptional circumstances apply.

Details of other practicalities can be found at this link (or cut and paste into your browser): https://sites.google.com/view/stephen-goss-therapy/fees-and-practicalities?authuser=0

A specialist in online practice, research, and service development, at the heart of my work lies the simple, warm, prizing relationship that is the centre of all therapy. What I return to time and again is that it is our connection and our ability to use it well that is most powerfully facilitative of your work with your clients. My supervision work is dialogic and positively framed, unpretentious and seeks to maintain authentic, honest contact.

Originally trained in Person-Centred Therapy under Prof Dave Mearns at the University of Strathclyde, I have since developed pluralist ways of understanding therapeutic work and helping relationships. Pluralism was the focus of my PhD, which led to the creation of pluralism as a model in counselling and psychotherapy. I now describe myself as a pluralist therapist/counsellor, researcher and supervisor.

Sometimes this means trying different ways of doing things before finding what fits best - and we will work creatively together on that. While the different approaches are held in structured dialogue, the focus resolutely remains on the specific needs of the particular work being discussed.

My work is designed to be continuously reflective, meaning we will regularly think together about how our work is going and what is most useful for you going forward.

More details about how I work can be found by following this link (or cut and paste into your browser): https://sites.google.com/view/stephen-goss-therapy/supervision?authuser=0

I offer supervision for online and offline counselling/psychotherapy for practitioners who are concerned to care for the quality of their work. I don't do supervision-by-numbers. After over 30 years supervising practitioners, I see good supervision as about helping you think clearly about difficult work. That means making it match you and the needs of the work, not a preformed template.

My approach is pluralist, based on understanding how we can do full justice - and no harm - to the delicate processes in therapy. I draw on person-centred work, transactional analysis, psychodynamics, CBT, narrative therapy and other approaches as they're pragmatically and creatively useful to you and your clients.

I've worked in mental health care since the 1980s, in settings from charitable counselling agencies to universities, from primary to tertiary and even residential care, from private practice to state provision and in several countries around the world. I have also worked in famine relief, founded and run charities, developed innovations in services and have run an independent practice for years, and bring this breadth of experience to our supervision.

In the 1990s I was Chair of 麻豆原创's Research Committee and founded their Research Department, then becoming their first Research Officer. I co-authored the first code of ethical guidance for online therapy and have worked online ever since. I helped found the Online Therapy Institute, responsible for international gold-standard training and development of mental health care at a distance, so I understand both the particular challenges of remote practice and the nonsense that sometimes gets talked about it.

I have taught at several UK Universities and led the DPsych programme at the Metanoia Institute for over a decade. I still supervise doctoral, post-doctoral and practice-based research as well as clinical practice.

Our first session will be a kind of 鈥減rospective review鈥� of your work to date and how we can best work together to support your needs. 

It is a chance for us both to decide if working together will be a good fit and feels right. In that first session we will usually discuss:

路 Your training and professional background/experience

路 Your personality and background: what makes you 鈥渢ick鈥�

路 Your current practice and clients

路 What you would like from supervision and your expectations

路 How you like to make supervision work for you

路 Whether we are a good fit

The first session is only charged for if we decide to proceed. If either of us decides not to go ahead it is completely free.

Click (or cut and paste into your browser) the following link for more details about the practicalities of how I work: https://sites.google.com/view/stephen-goss-therapy/supervision?authuser=0