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  • Where will my sessions take place?
    I offer in person sessions primarily at my home in Cottingham, East Yorkshire. I am available at a premises in Hull, although my availability here is much more limited. I also specialise in online sessions and I prefer to use Zoom. I am happy to use other platforms such as WhatsApp, Facetime if necessary. Telephone therapy is possible if you are averse to technology, although I do think it is better to maintain a visual relationship wherever possible.
  • What sort of things do people talk to you about?
    Anything! My service is confidential, so you can share with me any problems. We will work together to get past them and find new paths, and new ways of thinking. I am happy to discuss relationships, friendships, anxiety, addictions, career issues, finding yourself feeling stuck, sexuality, ambitions, success, happiness, problem solving, life change, childhood, retirement, grief, trauma - or anything else!
  • What is the difference between counselling, psychotherapy and coaching?
    I use the term 'talking' very broadly to describe a range of services including counselling, psychotherapy, and coaching. If you would like to find out more about the differences, there is an article in my blog entitled "Do I need Counselling, Psychotherapy or Coaching?" The image gives a very brief summary.
  • How many sessions will I need?
    This is almost impossible to answer! It very much depends on your immediate and on-going needs. Some clients with a very specific problem or goal may only need 6 sessions. In my experience, most clients come with a varierty of inter-related issues that will require more sessions and, very often, continued support. This is something we can discuss when you make initial contact, and once you have started it will be constantly re-evaluated by us both.
  • How can I be sure that your work is of a high standard?
    Many counsellors are qualified at Level 4 - which is somewhere between an A Level and a foundation degree. They require around 100 hours to qualify. I am qualified at Level 7 as a Psychotherapist - this is equivalent to a Masters degree. I am also accredited by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and hold full clinical membership with them as a Level 7 Psychotherapist. I am also an accredited professional member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society. Both of these organisations' registers have been accredited under a programme set up by the Department of Health and are administered by an independent bdy, accountable to Parliament. The Accreditation Mark is recognisable to the general public to enable them to identify a competent counsellor. Any counsellor or psychotherapist acting in an ethical manner will be supervised. All of my work is supervised by one of the most experienced psychotherapy supervisors in the local area. This helps to ensure that other perspectives are considered in the handling of your case, and that we are both kept safe in the process.
  • Are you a member of any professional organisations?
    I am a full clinical member of United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP) - and I'm registered with them as a Psychotherapist. I am also a accredited professional member with the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). This register is accredited with the Professional Standards Authority which assures you my work is to a high standard. I am also a member of the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA). I am also a Trainer and Coach member of the Association for NLP (ANLP). I follow all of these organisations' ethical codes. I am a licensed practitioner for the delivery of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to ensure the safety of your data.
  • Do you offer your service to people of all ages?
    Whist I do work with teenagers in schools, my experience is mostly around working with adults. For that reason, in my private practice, I choose not to work in the with persons under the age of 16.
  • Are you insured?
    Yes, all of my work is fully insured for coaching, psychotherapy and counselling and I can provide proof upon request. My insurer is Holistic Insurance Services.
  • Do you hold a current criminal record or DBS check?
    I am checked annuallly by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). This is an enhanced criminal record check, and I have no convictions.
  • Does Coronavirus change how your services work?
    Current regulations allow face to face sessions to take place. We do not wear masks in sessions together, unless you would prefer, and there are no screens between us. However, if either of us are aware that we have Coronavirus, I would suggest we switch sessions to an online platform. I find that Zoom works well. I am fully vaccinated and boosted. If you are not, I am still happy to see you in person. If I have any of the symptoms, I would take a lateral flow test for your safety.
  • Could I see your website's privacy policy?
    We receive, collect and store any information you enter on our website or provide us in any other way. In addition, we collect the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information and purchase history. We may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, and methods used to browse away from the page. We also collect personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, communications); payment details (including credit card information), comments, feedback, product reviews, recommendations, and personal profile. When you conduct a transaction on our website, as part of the process, we collect personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address. Your personal information will be used for the specific reasons stated above only. We collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes: To provide and operate the Services; To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support; To be able to contact our Visitors and Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages; To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-personal Information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services; To comply with any applicable laws and regulations. Our company is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall. All direct payment gateways offered by Wix.com and used by our company adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers. We may contact you to notify you regarding your account, to troubleshoot problems with your account, to resolve a dispute, to collect fees or monies owed, to poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires, to send updates about our company, or as otherwise necessary to contact you to enforce our User Agreement, applicable national laws, and any agreement we may have with you. For these purposes we may contact you via email, telephone, text messages, and postal mail. If you don’t want us to process your data anymore, please contact us at chris@talkingworks.uk or send us mail to: 29 South Street, Cottingham. HU16 4AH. We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it. If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, you are invited to contact us at chris@talkingworks.uk or send us mail to: 29 South Street, Cottingham. HU16 4AH.
Talking Works
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