FAQs

These frequently asked questions will help you to find out more about our service and how it works.

Our FAQs are split into three sections:

  • About Avenue Counselling

  • About Counselling

  • Additional Details

If you have any further questions, email hello@avenuecounselling.org.uk and we will get back to you.

About Avenue Counselling

    • One-to-one counselling for children and young people, for when individual support is needed

    • Family counselling for support with issues with children and young people’s issues that affect the parents / carers or the whole family.

    • Parental consultation to support parents / carers whose child is being seen by Avenue Counselling or No Limits

  • As a long-running service for children and young people with over 33 years’ experience, we are a trusted service that’s embedded into the local community. Using our experience, we provide person-centred counselling that focuses on helping you to navigate your challenges.

  • Collaborative, client-centred, warm and thorough. At Avenue Counselling, we want to know your preferences from the beginning, and we’ll adapt our work around you. Our counsellors and wider therapeutic team offer straightforward communication with any issues that arise.

  • Just contact us through the ‘Get in Touch’ page. Find more steps on our Getting Started page.

  • You can get in touch with us via our contact page, or emailing hello@avenuecounselling.org.uk. We aim to respond within a week of receiving your message.

  • Yes, Avenue Counselling treats confidentiality very seriously. This means counsellors do not share the details of the therapeutic work unless there is a safeguarding need to break confidentiality. This is communicated to children and young people in the following way: we will not share anything that happens in our sessions, or anything they say, unless we are worried that they or someone else is going to be harmed.

  • We have a fully wheelchair accessible counselling room, the Blue Room, and the counselling suite is on the ground floor with no stairs. There is an accessible toilet on the ground floor. 

  • No, and we are unable to offer immediate help. If you or your child/young person is in crisis, please contact the following organisations. They have specially trained staff and are ready to listen. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, dial 999. 

    • Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans 

    • Text "SHOUT" to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line 

    • Call 0800 585 858 to talk to Calm (if 15 years old or over) or use CALM webchat, both available from 5pm to midnight every day 

    • Call 0800 068 4141, text 07860 039967 to contact HOPELINE247, available 24 hours a day 

    • People under 19 can also call 0800 1111 to talk to Childline. The number will not appear on their phone bill.

About Counselling

  • It’s an approach to counselling that believes in each individual’s and family’s capacity to thrive despite current challenges. Avenue Counselling offers support to bring that about with various tools and materials, including play, talk, facilitation and psychoeducation to name a few.

  • A counselling approach that offers a space for various members to work together in whatever combinations that the initial referrer and the counsellor decide together. Each family session is usually a combination of talk, play, facilitation, psychoeducation and collaborative visioning that will differ with the family group as the work progresses.

  • The idea is for children, young people and families to be able to explore certain themes, issues and concerns with a professional counsellor. Different counsellors will support this in different ways which may include support to talk about feelings, behaviour and thoughts as well as using specific games and activities to do so.  

    Individual counselling can support a child or young person through ongoing issues or a situation that has come up in their life recently.  

    Family counselling offers a time to work on the overall dynamics of the family system whether there is primarily one child or young person with issues or a more general difficulty/set of difficulties.

  • The BACP stands for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. It is a professional association that promotes ethical and effective counselling and psychotherapy practices across the UK.

    Established in 1977, the BACP has grown to represent over 50,000 members and sets standards of proficiency and ethics for the counselling profession. View their ethical framework here.

    No Limits counselling is an accredited service which means that we have the highest standard of recognition and quality for our services.

  • They will listen and encourage the child, young person and family to delve further into your thoughts, behaviour and feelings, but the counsellor will not tell them what to do, or how to feel.

  • At Avenue Counselling, the first session is for assessment, during which the counsellor will support the child, young person or family to understand the process of the sessions.

    Prior to the first session, the parent/carer will be sent some forms to fill out and the counsellor will look at this with those present at the assessment and talk more about what brings the family, child or young person to therapy.

    They may ask questions about family make-up and history and learn about what makes things worse and what helps.

    The child, young person and family members will also be able to ask the counsellor questions to help them get to know them as well as what the sessions are likely to entail to help be sure this therapeutic work is the right thing to do at this time.

    The session may also have other therapeutic activities, such as games, playful interventions, and therapeutic listening and discussions.

Additional Details

  • Average private counselling costs across Hampshire for children and young people sit between around £60 to £90 an hour depending on the type of counselling required. Sometimes, an initial assessment session can cost over £100.

    Private Family Counselling can be an average cost of between £120 to £180 per hour.

  • Once sessions have been confirmed you can either pay weekly (48 hours before the session) or in sets of 6 sessions. You will be sent an invoice with instructions on how to pay. 

  • Avenue Counselling is a group of trained therapists and counsellors who adhere to the BACP ethical framework and guidelines. You will be allocated a counsellor that best fits your needs and availability. 

     If you would like to explore being supported by a different counsellor, we will be more than happy to work with you to support this where we can.

  • To respect our service, we ask that you please give 48 hours' notice to cancel a session to not charge for the session. If there has been an emergency, we may be able to refund you subject to management discretion.

  • One-to-one counselling for children and young people lasts 6-12 sessions. 

    Family counselling lasts 10-12 sessions. 

    Parenting consultations last 4-6 sessions. 

    If you feel that you want or need additional sessions, you can discuss this with your counsellor or send an email to hello@avenuecounselling.org.uk and we will get back to you.

  • Sessions at Avenue Counselling are 50 minutes long.

  • At Avenue Counselling, one-to-one sessions with children and young people and family sessions are every week. Parenting consultation sessions are fortnightly. 

  • At Avenue Counselling, there is a set number of sessions, please see our FAQs section “How many sessions will I have”. If someone wants to end before these are finished, we encourage the child, young person or family to discuss this with the counsellor rather than end abruptly. 

    If it is felt that the counsellor is not a good fit, please reach out to hello@avenuecounselling.org.uk to discuss the issue and we’ll do our best to help.