We all need help from other people, and at some intervals in our life we need a bit more help. People who come to therapy know when they need support and have the ability to recognise and try to meet their own emotional needs. Many people acknowledge that making time to meet their physical health needs, such as doing physical exercise and eating healthily, is necessary to maintain a balanced lifestyle but they often don’t realise that there are times where we also need to attend to our minds.

Our minds can be the emotional and mental muscle that can get forgotten which is why sometimes we are more vulnerable to a build up of problems in our lives. Life circumstances can also sometimes be unbelievably challenging! Psychological therapy offers a professional relationship with someone who can help you work through problems and consider alternative strategies to cope with them.

We are aware it can be immensely confusing to work out the difference between these mental health professionals as there is cross over between many of them in so far as they may be trained in working in specific therapies or from particular theoretical standpoints.

To add to the confusion, although these professionals can all support mental health and emotional wellbeing, their training, regulation and areas of responsibility also differ! Here is a brief overview of the different professions…

Clinical Psychologists and other HCPC-registered Psychologists

Clinical Psychologists are highly trained, regulated healthcare professionals. “Clinical Psychologist” is a legally protected title in the UK, and anyone using it must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Clinical and Counselling Psychologists usually complete doctoral-level professional training or an approved equivalent route, following earlier academic study and relevant clinical experience. Other HCPC-registered psychologists complete the advanced postgraduate training required for their particular protected specialism.

Their training extends beyond delivering one model of therapy. It includes detailed psychological assessment, formulation, research, service evaluation and the ability to draw upon and integrate several evidence-based approaches. This breadth enables psychologists to understand and work with complex, overlapping or long-standing difficulties and to adapt therapy as a client’s needs develop.

HCPC-registered psychologists may also have considerable experience in clinical leadership, consultation, supervision, training and service development. They often support other professionals to understand complex cases, maintain high clinical standards and make well-informed decisions about care. This is why our service prides itself in being psychology-led.

Psychiatrists

Psychiatrists are medically qualified doctors who have undertaken specialist training in mental health. They can assess and diagnose mental health conditions, consider physical and medical factors, prescribe medication and monitor its effects. Some also provide psychological therapy, although their work often focuses more heavily on medical assessment and treatment.

Unlike Psychiatrists, Psychologists do not usually prescribe medication in the UK. They are regulated healthcare professionals whose expertise centres on psychological assessment, formulation and intervention.

Psychotherapists

Psychotherapists are trained to provide talking therapy and may specialise in one or more therapeutic approaches. They can help people explore emotional difficulties, relationships, recurring patterns and past experiences. The length, depth and style of the work will depend on the practitioner’s training and therapeutic model.

“Psychotherapist” is not currently a legally protected title in the UK, so qualifications can vary. It is important to check that a practitioner has suitable training, supervision and registration with a recognised professional body. At Serendipity we require all our team to be registered with an approved professional body and ask all our team to be working towards formal accreditation as we believe this is a mark of high quality.

Counsellors

Counsellors provide talking therapy for a range of emotional, relational and life difficulties, including anxiety, low mood, bereavement, stress and major life changes. Counselling may sometimes be shorter-term or focused on a particular concern, although this varies between practitioners.

“Counsellor” is also not a legally protected title in the UK which is why we require our therapists to be registered with a professional body and working towards accredited status if not already accredited.

Mental Health Specialists

Mental Health Specialists are another important part of our therapy team. They usually begin with a core professional qualification, such as Mental Health Nursing, Occupational Therapy or Social Work, and then complete further training in psychological therapies, specialist assessments or particular areas of mental health practice.

Their original professional training gives them a broad understanding of mental health, risk, wellbeing and the wider factors that can affect someone’s life. Their additional training may qualify them to deliver specialist approaches such as CBT, DBT or EMDR, or to contribute to particular assessment and care pathways. Where their core profession is regulated, they must also meet the standards of the relevant statutory regulator.

This illustrates why the boundaries between professional titles can sometimes appear blurred. A Mental Health Nurse may also be a highly experienced psychological therapist; a Counsellor may also describe themselves as a Psychotherapist; and clinicians from several professional backgrounds may be trained in the same specialist therapy. A title alone does not always convey the full extent of someone’s expertise.

We therefore consider each clinician’s complete professional background at Serendipity: their core qualification, regulatory and professional registrations, therapeutic and assessment training, clinical experience and areas of specialist practice. Every member of our team works within the boundaries of their training, competence and professional responsibilities.

A psychologist-led service

Serendipity Psychology is a psychologist-led service. Our HCPC-registered psychologists provide clinical leadership, consultation and oversight across the wider team. They help us understand complexity, maintain high clinical standards and identify when a client may benefit from additional or different specialist input.

This does not mean that every client needs to work directly with a psychologist. The most suitable professional may be a Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Counsellor or Mental Health Specialist. Our psychologist-led model enables us to look beyond individual job titles and match you with a clinician whose overall qualifications, experience, therapeutic approach and fee are suited to your needs.

A mental health professional can help you approach your situation in a different way and teach you to develop new skills, gain different perspectives, listen to you in a non-judgemental way without expectation, and help you listen to yourself. Furthermore, therapy is a confidential environment so you won’t have to worry about other non-professionals knowing about what you’re struggling with.

Medication and therapy can play different but complementary roles in supporting mental health. Medication can reduce symptoms, improve stability and make everyday life more manageable. For some people it is helpful for a limited period; for others it may form an important part of longer-term treatment.

Therapy provides an opportunity to explore the experiences, relationships and patterns that may be contributing to your difficulties. It can also help you develop practical strategies, understand your responses and work towards personal or relational goals. These insights and skills may help you manage future challenges and reduce the likelihood of returning to unhelpful patterns.

Depending on the nature and severity of the difficulty, a person may benefit from therapy, medication or a combination of the two.

Some people who are referred to us have a clear idea of the type of therapy they would like to engage in. This may be because they have looked into it themselves, or because someone has recommended something to them. Other people are happy to work with their therapist to decide what options are available to them. It is a minefield and while we are happy to accommodate referrals for particular therapies in most instances, we wouldn’t expect a new client to know what they need therapeutically. We expect to help you with this in your initial consultation and along the way.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is a guidance, advice and information service for health and social care professionals. It releases guidance to clinicians about what forms of treatment tend to respond best to particular disorders for the majority of people. This is usually based on the most current and available research in the area. Your therapist will often consider a combination of sources when deciding what might be a useful therapy for you, these sources will include the NICE guidelines, other recent evidence in the area, their training and experience, and what you want which may or may not be based on previous experiences you have had. For example, if the NICE guidance suggests you might benefit best from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), but you haven’t had a positive experience of this therapy in the past, your therapist may decide to explore other options with you.

Every person has different issues and goals so therapy will be different depending on the individual. Arranging an initial consultation session will enable you to meet with a therapist who will be able to explore the issues you have and the things you want to achieve. You can then consider the most helpful approach with them going forward.

Everyone’s circumstances are unique to them and the length of time therapy can take to get you to your goals depends on your desire for personal development, your commitment, and the factors that are driving you to seek therapy in the first place. It is possible to decide that you have a certain period of time you are willing to commit to therapy and both you and your therapist can agree to work on specific issues during this period and review progress regularly. Some people find that committing to a time frame can be helpful while others are willing to invest in longer-term therapy and recognise that therapy is very helpful for them. Either approach can bring about great benefits.

Active participation and dedication to therapy brings about much more individual progress and success. While the work done in the therapy session is very important, the work you do outside your session brings about the most change. Reflecting on the sessions afterwards and considering the central points of change can be one very good way of helping the process. Sometimes it can be even more helpful to agree work to be accomplished between sessions with your therapist before the end of the session that can then be reviewed in your next session.

If the main concern is your relationship and you are both willing to take part, it is often helpful to attend the initial consultation together. This allows the therapist to hear both perspectives, understand the difficulties between you and discuss what you each hope to gain from therapy.

As part of the couples assessment, the therapist may suggest meeting with each partner separately before bringing you together again. These individual meetings remain part of the couples work rather than becoming separate individual therapy. Your therapist will explain how confidentiality and information shared during these meetings will be managed.

If one partner is already having individual therapy, we would usually recommend that couples work takes place with a different therapist. An individual therapist will already have formed a therapeutic relationship with one person and may hold private information that could make it difficult for them to remain equally focused on both partners.

After couples therapy has ended, it may be possible for one partner to continue or return for individual therapy with the same therapist, following discussion and careful consideration. However, once that individual therapeutic relationship has begun, the same therapist would not normally resume work with the couple. This does not prevent you from having couples therapy again; it simply means that a different couples therapist would be needed.

If you are unsure which format is most appropriate, an initial consultation can help you decide. Where there is fear, abuse, coercive control or concern about either partner’s safety, joint sessions may not be suitable. Please let us know privately so that we can consider the safest and most appropriate form of support.

It is also worthy of note that couples therapy doesn’t always have to start or end with the goal of staying together. This is a common illusion of couples and marriage therapy. Sometimes the most effective goal of therapy can be to support the couple to separate in an amicable way. This can be especially helpful in considering parting between individuals who have children, pets or who share significant assets that need amicable division. Being supported by a therapist to accomplish this together can be a much more rewarding, reflective and cost effective way of breaking down a relationship than seeking opposing solicitors!

If you are hoping to receive therapy funded through an insurance company such as BUPA, Aviva, Healix, WPA or Cigna, we would ask that you first make contact with them and ensure they have authorised funding for you. When you do this, they will tell you how many sessions are available to you initially, how and if you can apply for further sessions if you need them in the future, and what your excess payment is. They will also give you an authorisation number which you will need to provide to us, along with your membership number before therapy can start. Usually this information is given to you in a letter from the insurer and it can be easiest to share the letter with us if you are happy to do so as this will tell us what we need to know and will reduce the time we take to confirm details with them. The process of checking with your insurer can be quick and shouldn’t hold up the process of booking an appointment for too long.

1) Making a referral: After getting in touch with us, our  practice team will take some details from you to ensure they have what they need to make an initial referral to the right practitioner in our team. These details will include:

• An overview of the problems you’re seeking help for
• Whether you have ideas about what support you were hoping to access
• Whether you’d like to access support online or in-person (or a hybrid of both)
• Where you’re based and how far you would be prepared to travel if you want to access support in-person
• Your availability

2) Team allocation: Our practice team will then collaborate with our senior clinical team to consider who might be the best person to link you up with based on the information they’ve gathered from you. They will make the referral and the practitioner will get in touch with you for an brief introductory call (about 15 minutes). If the call goes well, they will then be able to make an initial appointment with you while on the phone.

3) Confirmation details: Once setup, the practitioner will notify the practice management team who will send out confirmation of the appointment with the details you need to attend the appointment. They will also ask you to complete some information so we can setup a client file in your name, and you can make payment for the first session.

4) Initial consultation: An initial consultation with a practitioner from our team of specialists would involve the first stages of an assessment to establish what the problem is and how to work with it.

5) Subsequent sessions: If you are happy to continue after the first consultation, you will have the opportunity to setup subsequent sessions directly with your therapist.

If you or they may decide they aren’t the right person to continue work with, either because they don’t have the most suitable skillset or expertise, or you may simply feel they aren’t the right fit for you, we encourage you to let our practice team know and we can investigate whether someone else in the team might be a better fit.

This is typically quite normal in therapeutic practice as we believe it’s important for you to feel there’s a strong rapport with the therapist working with you.

6) Formal assessments: If you are starting a formal assessment process, such as an assessment for neurodivergence (ASD / ADHD), or another formal assessment, you should receive some more detailed information about what to expect in the first session and thereafter from our practice team. Please ask in advance if you are unsure about the process of this as we are here to help and ensure the process is as seamless as possible.

It’s likely that the first consultation will involve both parent and child either together, separately, or a bit of both depending on what is assessed as most helpful by the practitioner at the time. In cases of very young children, it may not be suitable for them to attend the initial session, or the work may be more appropriately done through their parent/s. It is always best to explore this initially with the clinician/s who will be conducting the initial appointment and make sure you have a plan with them about how best to manage the first session. They should guide you in how to do this in the initial setup call you have with them and would also expect to make a plan with you when you attend the session.

We usually ask that self-funding clients pay for their first consultation upon confirmation of the first appointment. When you make contact with the company and we arrange a date and time for you to meet with a therapist we assume this is confirmed for you. Closer to the session date, we send out a confirmation and reminder email with the details you need to access the session along with payment details and some forms to complete which help us open a client file for you. It is at this point that we would ask you to make payment for the session. If you decide to continue with further therapy sessions, our accounts team would then send out a monthly invoice in arrears which we ask to be paid within 7 days. It is also possible for you to opt to pay for each session as you have it, in which case we would ask for you to pay for the session 24 hours in advance.