Gary Keene

I work Mondays and Tuesdays, from 7am to 7pm.

You don't have to know what to call it before you get in touch. Most people arrive with something that isn't sitting right and can't yet say what it is.

I'm Gary Keene, a counsellor in Kingston upon Thames, working in person and online across the UK.

Before this I spent thirty years leading technology teams in large organisations, so I know the particular weight of being the one others rely on, and what it costs to carry it with nowhere to set it down. I've had my own losses too, which is the other half of why I do this work now.

I'm qualified in person-centred counselling and in Gestalt therapy, which is a way of working that pays attention to what is happening between two people while they talk, and not only to the account being given. I won't arrive with a method to apply to you. What we do gets worked out between us, and revisited as we go.

Mostly what I do is listen, for longer than people expect, and say what I notice. I'll ask when I haven't understood rather than assume I have. If something isn't helping, I'd far rather hear it than not, and I'll ask.

People sometimes wonder how this differs from talking to a good friend. Mostly it's that I have no stake in what you decide and no version of you to keep intact. Friends have to live with your choices. I don't, and that turns out to make some things easier to say.

I'm a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, work within its Ethical Framework, and am in regular supervision.

You don't need a diagnosis, or a plan, or the right words. Those tend to arrive in the talking, rather than before it..

People come to me with all sorts of things. Often it's grief, bereavement, or the end of something: a relationship, a marriage, a job, a way of living that has stopped being available. Often it's anxiety, or stress and burnout, or depression and low mood that has been put down to circumstance for too long. Sometimes it's low self-esteem, confidence, or the kind of perfectionism that never lets anything be finished. Difficulty in relationships and family life is common ground too.

Work brings a lot of people here: redundancy, a role that has changed shape under you, a decision you keep circling, or the particular tiredness of being the person everyone brings things to.

I see adults of any age, individually. I don't work with couples or families together in the room.

Counselling sessions are fifty minutes, usually weekly, for as long or short a time as is useful. There's no set curriculum and nothing you have to cover.

I work in three ways: in person in Kingston upon Thames, a few minutes from Kingston and Norbiton stations and easily reached from Surbiton, New Malden and Richmond; online across the UK over an encrypted video connection; and walking therapy on foot in Richmond Park, for people who find it easier to talk side by side and outdoors than face to face in a room.

If you're autistic or have ADHD, I don't offer assessment or diagnosis and wouldn't call myself a specialist, but I'm glad to adjust how we work: the pace, how much silence there is, and saying things plainly rather than leaving them to be inferred.

Counselling is £70 for a fifty-minute session, with a small number of concessionary places. Payment is by bank transfer or card after each session. I also offer therapeutic coaching, quoted individually.

I'm available Mondays and Tuesdays, 7am to 7pm.

My first session is different from the rest, and it's free.

Before any regular counselling I suggest a short conversation of around twenty minutes, at no cost. It comes first, always. You get in touch, I reply within one working day and suggest a time or two, and we talk, by phone or video, whichever you'd rather.

There's nothing to prepare and no need to explain everything. You don't have to have it worked out, or know what to call it, or arrive with a tidy account of what's wrong.

It's mostly a chance for us both to get a sense of one another, since who you sit with tends to matter more than any particular method. We can talk a little about what has brought you, and about how you'd prefer we went about things. You're welcome to ask me anything: about fees, confidentiality, my training, how I work, or what happens if it turns out not to be helping.

Nothing is booked and nothing is paid for until after we've spoken. At the end you're free to think it over, or to decide I'm not the right person for you. If that's how it lands, I'd be glad to suggest some alternatives rather than leave you to start again from nothing.

If we do go ahead, the first full session is fifty minutes like any other. We start wherever you want to start, which is sometimes the thing you came in with and often something underneath it.

Anything you tell me when you enquire is used only to reply to you, and is held securely. There's a full privacy notice on my website..