To register for Counselling please read the below information and then complete our online Registration Form by clicking here. (We do have some availability for Couples Counselling; please contact us on 01452 383820 if you wish to enquire about this rather than filling in the usual form).

We will then contact you to offer an initial assessment appointment with an experienced Counsellor.  This assessment will take place during the day and will last for one hour.  During the meeting your Assessor will not be counselling you, but will ask you a number of questions so that we can place you with a Counsellor best suited to helping you. (Should you need to rearrange your Assessment session, please give us at least two full working days’ notice).

We do ask for a non-refundable booking fee of £15 (£10 if on means tested benefits) for this first appointment. (Please note that if you have to rearrange your assessment appointment with less than 48 hours of notice you may be liable to pay the booking fee again). We do not charge a set fee for counselling but we do ask clients to make a contribution each session towards part of the costs of providing the session.

A private counselling session normally costs £50. We are an affordable counselling service; we believe it is important to make counselling available when you cannot afford this rate.

At assessment you will agree with the counsellor assessing you, how much you can afford to pay as a donation each week. We never turn anyone away because of their financial situation.

Please be aware the time you wait to be allocated a counsellor can depend on time restrictions, which of our centres you can get to, and finding the right counsellor for you. It can be as fast as 2 months, or can take over a year.

If you are able to pay £35 or more (per person, per session), we can link you with counsellors who continue to volunteer their time with us, but also work in a private capacity for a reduced fee for Listening Post clients. This means that we can match you with a counsellor faster; although we can’t guarantee the exact length of time it will take to allocate you to a counsellor, it is usually within several weeks, and therefore much faster than our average wait time of 2-8 months on the main waiting list. Please only choose this option if you are confident you can maintain a £35 weekly payment as otherwise you will have to pause counselling, go onto our main waiting list and then be allocated to a new counsellor.

When a counsellor becomes available to start work with you, they will telephone you to arrange a regular time to meet. You would normally meet your counsellor at the same time each week and your session lasts for fifty minutes. It is important to try and clear the space to make this time and commitment to yourself before starting counselling.

Listening Post also has limited spaces open for couples counselling, where you would come to counselling sessions together as a pair; these sessions are held in Mitcheldean. If you would like to register for couples counselling, please fill in this registration form together rather than the usual individual form. You will each need to pay the initial assessment fee of £10 or £15.

Our Current Waiting Times for the main waiting list:

For Assessment – 2 weeks
For Counselling – 2 months to more than 1 year (average 4 months)

Our Current Waiting Times if you can afford to pay for one of the team of low cost counsellors working for us:

For Assessment – 2 weeks
For Counselling – usually within several weeks