Introduction for Young Person

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Hi I’m Vicky and I have been working as a counsellor with young people for over 10 years now and as such have met lots of young people who are struggling with many different issues or who have parent’s/carers who feel they need some support or help with something.

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Firstly for me it is really important that you as the person accessing counselling want to be there and in the initial stages this can just be about finding out what it is. I believe this can be very useful as it can be easy sometime to not try something that is different, new or we don’t know anything about and that can be usual as trying something new can be quite scary. However not trying something and finding out about it may mean that we actually miss out on something that could be really useful for us. Rest assured if that doesn’t seem to be the case after a couple of meetings or so I would suggest that we or I if you’d prefer speak to your parent/carer or adult that wants you to come and see me and find a way forward that respects your wishes. I may be that I can support those that care for you in a different way.

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My hope for the counselling that I provide is that together we will find a way to build a relationship where you feel able to explore whatever it is that you would like to ‘talk’ about. It is really important for me that this is somewhere that you can use for ‘you’ to express what is important to you, in a way that is meaningful to you. I realise that for you to get to this point of reading this information it is likely that an adult will have had some input, maybe suggesting that you need some help/support and what this might look like. I want you to know that it is fine with me for you to choose how you use counselling and we can work together in order for you to be able to have a space to talk about and explore what is important to you whilst maybe also sometimes wondering together and if you agree with the adult who will be paying for this service what their hopes and concerns are for you. I am aware that this may sound scary and rather daunting but sometimes it can be really useful having a conversation with someone neutral that can hep both people hear the others point of view. Rest assured that this would only happen if you agreed and otherwise I would not be sharing any information with anyone other than if I legally had to do so or if I was concerned about your safety or another young person’s safety but we would talk about these limits of confidentiality at our first session so you know. I seek to be very transparent in how I work and not spring surprises on anyone.

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One last thing…………I realise that it can be tricky to just talk about things, especially tricky things and as such I am really keen that people I work with feel able to bring into sessions and use whatever helps them to express themselves. It may be that you choose to bring an image that has meaning for you or to refer to some lyrics of a song. You might choose to use some of the items I have in the room where I work, these include pens and paper and many other creative items, games or just stuff to fiddle with. I recognise that we are all different and different things help us and will help you to express yourself and explain your world or aspect of it to me.

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I would really like to meet you and see if we think we could work together and also to check out that it is appropriate for you to have counselling at this time and part of this is about checking out that it is something you want.

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