Counselling

We are very fortunate at Marriotts to have our own Counselling Department, where we have four qualified Therapist that are trained in working with young people and adults. At Marriotts, we always make sure we have two Therapist in everyday to provide the support that is needed for our student’s needs.

Information on what we can offer

Counselling is about providing a safe space in which our students/parents and staff members can explore their feelings and thoughts and be fully heard. A Counsellor will listen carefully to help the needs of the individual. We aim to help the client to make sense of their own situation and work through this process with them through the journey of therapy.  

All our Counsellors are fully qualified and follow the “Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy” as outlined in the guidelines from the BACP. All our Counsellors are members of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) or NCS (National Counselling Society).  

Marriotts Counselling department offer a range of confidential and skilled support for our community, which includes one-to-one therapy, group therapy, and parent and child therapy if needed. 

We can also offer 6 to 8 weeks of free Counselling for parent/carers, this can be via telephone, Zoom/Teams or face to face with one of our Counsellors.

Reasons to start counselling

Reasons to reach out to a Counsellor is because you can explore your personal issues on a deeper level with a professional that can help you address your problems in a more positive outlook.

The Counsellors can help by supporting you to clarify your issues by exploring options, looking at solutions, developing coping strategies to increase your awareness of your own self.  We always endeavour to make you feel welcomed in a safe, non-judgemental environment at all times.

Desired Outcomes

To encourage:

• A sense of self-worth
• Assisting behaviour change
• Improving your ability to establish and maintain healthy relationships
• Enhancing the effectiveness and ability to cope better in situations
• Supporting the process to help client’s see potential within their own goals they desire to accomplish
• Achieving and developing a healthier mind-set on life
• To gain better confidence and value our worth

How to be referred for counselling

If you feel your child needs to access our Counselling Service, then you can contact their Head of Year to request a Counselling referral.  Once a referral has been made, it is then filtered down through to our referral process in the Counselling Department.  When the referral is completed, the Head of Counselling will allocate them to a Counsellor to do an initial assessment.  During the assessment, the client’s individual needs will be discussed in confidence.  

Once a Counselling assessment has been completed and the Counsellor has assessed the client’s needs, we will then look at what support is necessary, e.g., one-to-one Counselling, group therapy or a referral to other organisations, for example a CAMHS referral can be made.  

The student would then be put on a waiting list to be seen for regular therapy by a Counsellor. The waiting list is prioritised by the referral date and the young person’s needs.  Please be aware there may be a 6 week wait before sessions can start.  

Further Information

In 2019 all our Counsellors attained a qualification to enable them to offer Online and Telephone Counselling to students, parents/carers and staff if needed. This course was completed through a well-established and recognised training provider called Counselling Tutor.

Therefore, this has enabled us to be incredibly flexible in how we can offer Counselling other than just through face-to-face sessions.

As a general principle, it is legal and acceptable for a young person to ask for confidential counselling without parental consent providing they are of sufficient understanding and intelligence.

If the young person is ‘Gillick Competent’ we will not inform the parent that they are seeking Counselling but we will encourage them to tell their parents themselves, this is the young person’s choice if they want to make this decisions or not. If we ever felt your child was at immediate danger or involved in risk, confidentially would always be broken, which the child would be made aware of at the start of therapy in the contract.

https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/child-protection-system/gillick-competence-fraser-guidelines

https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/2335/bacp-competences-map-for-working-with-young-people.pdf

Meet the team:

Shannen Wadsworth - Head of Counselling

 Kate Crichton - Counsellor

Ann Gluskstein - Senior Therapist

Gill Cocksedge - Counsellor

Fiona Marquis - Counsellor

If you would like to make a direct referral to Counselling for yourself or your child, you can call Head of Counselling directly.

Phone: 01438 726999 ext 288

Email: s.wadsworth@marriotts.herts.sch.uk

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”

Carl Yung