FAQ’s

Relate Derby and Southern Derbyshire offers a range of services that will be delivered by specially trained counsellors.

Counselling helps you take time out from your situation and see it from a fresh perspective.

Working with a counsellor gives you, or you and your partner, a chance to think about what you can do to change your situation for the better. It also gives you a chance to explore complex or difficult issues in a safe and confidential environment.

When you first come to Relate, you’ll be given an initial consultation. In this, a counsellor will talk with you for around one hour about what’s on your mind and what it is you want from counselling.

Some people find this session is all they need to clear their head and help them decide what to do and that no further counselling is necessary. If you and your counsellor agree it would be helpful for you to come back, you’ll talk about how it might be best to proceed.

Relate counsellors have all received specialist training. It takes at least two to three years to become a fully qualified Relate counsellor. Once qualified as a counsellor, our Team then undergo further training to specialise in areas such as Family Counselling and Sex therapy.

Just contact us and we will help you find the right service for your needs.

Everything that you talk about in the sessions is confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside the session unless you state otherwise, we are worried about your safety or the safety of someone else.
If the session is funded through a contract which requires a level of information sharing, such as IAPT, this will be discussed with you.

Counselling sessions usually last 45 minutes to an hour, some sessions may be shorter or longer depending on the service.

The price of a counselling session is £85, if you have a household annual income of £100,000 or more it is £95 per session.

If you haven’t had counselling with Relate Derby before you will need to pay a £20 non-refundable registration fee regardless of household income. We have a cancellation policy of 48 hours before sessions which will be explained when you register.

Relate Derby and Southern Derbyshire tries to keep the cost of counselling as low as possible, but we do need to charge a fee for services in order to cover the cost of what we spend.

Relate Derby and Southern Derbyshire is a not for profit charity and the money that we charge goes straight back into providing the best service possible.

We aim to support everybody who comes to us for help and many Relate Centre offer reduced rates depending on your income or if you’re receiving benefits. Contact the office to find out details.

However, we have free counselling through IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) service for couples and young people (age 16-18) who are experiencing anxiety, depression, low mood, relationship issues, loss, grief, trauma and other conditions. You can access this free service if you are registered with a GP in one of the designated areas in Derby and Derbyshire. Please contact your GP to get referred to us or contact us (01332 349177) directly and we will guide you.

IAPT is commissioned by the NHS through Talking Mental Health Derbyshire.

For your ongoing sessions you will be with the same counsellor unless you wish to see a different counsellor or your current counsellor feels that another counsellor would be able to help you better. Sometimes you will have seen a different counsellor for your initial assessment session.

When you have had your initial appointment, you will be able to discuss availability and how often you will be able to attend sessions. Most people attend sessions weekly as this is often the way to get maximum benefit from the therapy.

It this is particularly important to you, we will try our best to accommodate your request. However, depending on counsellors available this may not always be possible and also may mean that you may be waiting on the waiting list for longer.

As well as face to face counselling services at our Derby Centre, we also use other venues including in Burton and Belper. Please ask us for details of other current list of venues.

We also have counsellors trained to offer counselling over the phone, via webcam and by email. Sometimes people have all their sessions by one of these methods, and at other times clients choose to have occasional sessions this way because of personal circumstances. If you think you might like to access counselling by one of these alternative methods let us know and we can make sure you are booked with a counsellor who has received the appropriate additional training.

Your first session will be offered to you as soon as an appointment is available with a counsellor that is suitable for you. Your first ongoing appointment will have a longer wait time and we will talk this through with you when you register or when you are offered your assessment. The more flexible you can be about your appointment times the easier it will be to find an ongoing appointment time for you.

If you miss a call from Relate Derby depending on what you have given us permission to do we will either leave a voicemail, text, or email to the contacts you have provided to us.

Family counselling often involves both adults and children, so your counsellor will discuss with you who should attend each session. However, children and babies should not be brought into other sessions. We do not have crèche facilities and children cannot be left unattended in the waiting room.

Relate Derby has a Car Park that is shared with the various business that are around us, the parking spaces that are ours are marked “FERN”. You can ask about this when you call in or have a look at the posters that are dotted around our Centre.

Relate aims to give you a good experience. If we don’t get it right please let us know so we can improve services for the future. If you have a concern or would like to make a formal complaint, please contact us and ask to speak to a manager about it. Letters and emails with concerns should be sent for the attention of our CEO.