Hello

Hi, my name is Jo and I'm a student counsellor in the final year of a Level 5 Professional Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling. I offer sessions in Manchester and Chester, and online.

I train integratively, which means I draw on person-centred, psychodynamic and CBT ways of working rather than being restricted to one model. What that looks like depends on you. Some people want to understand where something comes from and why it keeps happening. Others want something more practical to get them through the week. Often it turns out to be both, and it changes as we go.

I've worked in education since 2003, and in senior and organisational leadership since 2016, so I've spent a long time alongside people under pressure: young people, and the adults responsible for them. My counselling placement so far has been with children in a primary school, using play therapy. I also hold coaching qualifications.

I'm autistic and ADHD. I mention it because it shapes how I listen, and because some people find it easier to start with someone who already knows what it is to process the world differently.
Outside of work, I'm mum to teenage boys. I read a lot, I make things, and I get outdoors whenever I can.

I'm a student member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS), and I work within their ethical frameworks, with regular supervision.