Honor Allen Counselling

As a Person Centred counsellor practising in Liverpool I offer a confidential counselling service that is empathetic, non-judgmental and tailored to each client’s need. This gives my clients the opportunity to reflect on their experiences in a peaceful environment and explore possible ways forward for personal growth and future emotional health.

Prior to training as a counsellor I was a teacher with a particular interest in children with special needs.  My own personal experience as a carer of people with learning disabilities, mental health difficulties and the elderly has given me an appreciation of the pressures experienced by families in these situations.

I worked for a number of years in pastoral care, supporting people of all ages through difficult times in their lives, including relationship breakdown, low self esteem, bereavement, physical illness, depression and anxiety. This increased my understanding of how these circumstances can deeply affect a person’s quality of life and emotional wellbeing. Other past experience has included working for Merseycare as a co-facilitator for psychological self-management groups and as a counsellor in a pregnancy crisis centre.

I have trained in bereavement, grief and loss and in addition to my private practice I also counsel at a bereavement service in Liverpool. I am aware that bereavement does not only apply to the death of someone close but also to other losses we experience in life, such as loss of relationships, jobs, status, finance and pets.

I have a particular interest in helping people to transition through different seasons of life, dealing with the gains and losses experienced as life changes. This can include moving from adolescence to adulthood, from education to work, changing career, from not having children to parenthood and from work to retirement.

I am a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, working according to their Ethical Framework for Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I have an advanced DBS, am fully insured and receive regular supervision to ensure good practice.

How counselling can help

There are many situations in life when we might seek the support of a counsellor. It maybe that we are facing challenges that we feel overwhelmed by or issues that we have not been able to resolve alone. We can face times of significant change when we look for outside help. Counselling offers individual time with a qualified and experienced professional in a calm and supportive environment to consider the issues that are creating challenge or distress. By working with a counsellor it is possible to gain greater understanding of those issues and discover ways that lead to positive change in our lives.

What to expect

Taking the first step of seeing a counsellor can feel daunting but the confidential relationship that is built between a counsellor and client is one of trust. You can be confident that you will not be judged for anything that you raise in counselling sessions.  You will always be treated with respect and warmth and will begin with the issues that you want to talk about.

After making an initial contact by email, text or phone you will be invited to a first session to meet me and decide whether counselling is for you. There is no obligation to continue sessions after that if you would prefer not to. They last for 1 hour and cost £50 each. These can be either weekly or fortnightly sessions on a one-to-one, face to face basis and can be on a short or long term basis, with regular reviews.

Help offered

I can offer help for the following issues:

Bereavement, grief and loss (inc. loss of relationship, job, status, health, pets etc); Anxiety; Depression; Self esteem/confidence; Relationship challenges; Living with poor health; Being a carer; Pregnancy crisis and loss; Workplace challenges and stress; Life transitions etc.

Qualifications: MBACP (Accred); B.Ed (Hons); Dip Therapeutic Counselling