Counselling & Psychotherapy - Edinburgh Counselling Associates

Personal Counselling & Psychotherapy

You may have specific troubling issue, or you may have a general sense of not being right, or you might want to explore yourself in greater psychological depth. These are all good reasons for coming to therapy.

The "talking therapies" (rather an popping a pill) is an effective way of looking at a range of issues. It works in many ways. You can talk about anything you like (we make sure it is therapeutic).

We take as our starting point that:

You are OK as a person - whatever it is you feel or have done.
You've have been doing the best you can to look after yourself.
You can think for yourself in ways that will help you change.
You can change your destiny by changing your decisions, changing how you respond to things, and by changing how you feel about yourself.

You decide what to work on

Therapy isn't something that is done to you. Together we will agree what you want to change and how you will know when you have achieved that.

You may not immediately know exactly what that goal is, which is fine. Much early work is often exploring the issues and coming to a point of clarity about what needs to be done. And of course, you can change your goals as our work together progresses.

Becoming more you

Usually, you will end up feeling more "you" - a new year. Often a fuller, more complete you. But definitely you, and the "you" you want to be.

Common Concerns

Cost of treatment

Length of treatment

Confidentiality: We treat everything you say as confidential and hold that within a tightly boundaried set of professional practice guidelines.

Medical Records: Attending counselling or psychotherapy does not appear on your medical record and your GP is not informed of your treatment, with two exceptions.

If you are receiving any medication that can have a psychological impact, we will want to inform your GP.
If you are in so much psychological distress that you are a danger to yourself or others we will want to inform your GP, who is responsible for your primary health care.