What is Counselling?
On our counselling page ( https://arcuslgbt.com/affordable-adult-counselling/ ) you will find the following description for counselling.
“Counselling is a confidential helping activity whereby, through the use of active listening, you are empowered to help yourself face your issues and develop strategies for coping with them.”
But what does that all actually look like and what can you expect during counselling?
In short?
Counselling is a professional guidance process where individuals discuss their problems with a trained expert to explore their thoughts and feelings, often aiming to overcome emotional or psychological issues. It typically involves a series of sessions in a safe and confidential environment (At Arcus, we currently offer unlimited 50 minute sessions before you have to re-refer, as of 17/02/2026). With online counselling you can have counselling sessions within the comfort of your own home or other private venue of your choosing.
You and your counsellor will work together to help you overcome issues you are facing, certainly, but what are those issues?
Examples of what Counselling can help with:
- To help people understand their feelings and thoughts
- To solve personal or relationship problems
- To cope with stress, anxiety, or depression
- To improve decision-making
- To build self-confidence and self-awareness
From the examples above, you can see that as well as helping you tackle challenging circumstances and emotions, Counsellors, and Counselling, can benefit you in tackling day-to-day challenges. When we think of self-improvement we may think of engaging in physical exercise, dieting, partaking in a hobby, attending social events. Altering behaviours and habits to meet the desire for improvement and self-actualisation can in itself be a challenge! Counselling can help here by providing non-judgemental support.
Expectations of a counsellor
Your counsellor is a professional listener, it is their position to be curious and congruent about whatever you bring to your session. They could utilise a couple of forms of providing counselling during your time together such as; Talking therapies, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Creative Therapy, and MORE
Arcus runs a generalist service. We may not offer the specific mode of therapy you are looking for, but it’s worth being aware that other modes exist if you feel you could benefit from a particular style.
What do I need to do to start counselling?
If you chose to start your counselling journey with Arcus, you can book in to our assessment clinic here, when you have filled in a few details and selected a time slot that works for you, then a member of our assessment team will be in touch over the phone at the selected time (ON A WITHHELD NUMBER) to complete your initial assessment.
Some of the questions you can expect them to ask include; contact information, any other services involved in your care, what may affect your ability to receive counselling, and of course, what brings you to counselling.
If you are using our means test service they will also ask you your hours of work. This operates on an honour system. We hope that if you are able to, you will help support the service as it allows us to continue increasing the quality of the service we can provide. If you need to change which Tier of payment you make just then let us know – we aim to be as flexible and as accessible cost wise first and foremost for all who need our services.
After you have completed your initial assessment you will be added to our waitlist, this can vary significantly and if you for whatever reason you change your mind about counselling with us in the meantime, let us know, otherwise, await contact from your counsellor to arrange your first session.
Your First Session
Things may have changed since your initial assessment, so your counsellor may have some admin to do before they can get started in full, including performing a GAD & PHQ Assessment with you, this is a short test to generate a score on your health and anxiety, it may provide a useful reference for you and your counsellor in future sessions. After some basic housekeeping they will begin to explore what brings you to counselling and your journey may begin….
What makes counselling at Arcus?
At Arcus we operate thanks to the hard work of our volunteer counsellors, including students, who stand ready to help you begin your counselling journey together. We work closely with our amazing team to provide a high level of service and couldn’t be prouder of the work they do. We hope you will agree and help leave feedback for the team.
