Counselling in schools

I work with schools across Cheltenham and Gloucestershire, providing one-to-one counselling, group work and safeguarding workshops for pupils. This is a service your school commissions directly, not something a parent books with me on their own.

A decision you have to stand behind

Commissioning support for pupils is a decision you have to be able to stand behind: to governors, to parents, and to anyone who asks how it works. My career started long before I qualified as a counsellor: a nursery, then social care, then SEN, special educational needs, and pastoral roles in schools. Counselling pupils is where all of that experience meets. Safeguarding, DBS and insurance are covered in full below, because I know that's what you need to see before anything else.

What stands behind this

Two schools, currently contracted.
Six years qualified, after a career spent in SEN, special educational needs, and pastoral education, before I ever became a counsellor.
BBC News coverage. BBC News covered the wellbeing cabin I opened at a local primary school.

What your school gets

One-to-one counselling

Individual sessions for pupils referred through the school, run to the same professional standard as my private client work.

Year 6 Transition Groups

A group format supporting pupils through the move to secondary school. One session spent time talking about the summer and the move to Year 7, and finished with decorating biscuits together. This is school-commissioned only: there's no published rate and no way for a parent to book it directly.

Safeguarding workshops

Standalone workshops delivered to whole primary school classes. One workshop, run during a school's Safeguarding Week, covered what safeguarding means, the people who can help keep a pupil safe, and organisations like the police and Childline, finishing with a check on whether pupils knew the right number to call in an emergency: 999. This is separate from one-to-one counselling and can be commissioned in its own right.

How it works

1Referrals come through the school
This is a service your school commissions, not something a parent books directly with me. Referrals go through your school's pastoral lead: a teacher or parent raises it with them, the pastoral lead triages whether counselling, a teaching assistant or another kind of support is the right fit, and if it's counselling, they contact me directly. Parents are notified as part of that process.
2I come to you
Sessions are delivered on site, on days agreed with the school in advance, within Cheltenham as standard and further afield by agreement. Session length depends on the school: sessions can run between 30 and 50 minutes, with a minimum span of half a term, six to seven weeks. All of this is agreed between the school, the parent and me. One size doesn't fit all here.
3What the school provides
For an arrangement to work, a school provides a private space for sessions, a named point of contact, and agreement from parents.

Safeguarding, confidentiality and what you can expect

Safeguarding, DBS and insurance

Safeguarding, keeping pupils safe from harm, sits behind everything I do in a school. That starts with the checks a school needs to see: I hold a DBS check, Disclosure and Barring Service, and liability insurance.

Confidentiality and the safeguarding exception

What a pupil tells me is confidential. The one exception that applies to every pupil I see is safeguarding: if I become seriously concerned about a pupil's safety or somebody else's, I have a professional duty to act, and the school is part of that response. The full confidentiality statement is on my contact page.

Reporting back to the school

Outside the safeguarding exception, what's shared with the school is agreed when the arrangement is set up, not decided case by case.

Ready to discuss your school?

Get in touch through the contact page or by phone, whether you're thinking about one-to-one counselling, a Year 6 Transition Group, or a safeguarding workshop. Arrangements are agreed per school, so there's no published rate here: it's a conversation, not a form to compare against a price list. Curious whether a session could include a trained therapy dog for your pupils? Read about Mia and Coco. For more on my background, see my about page, or who else I work with.