Benjamin Jackson

I’m Ben, a psychotherapist and counsellor working online, on the phone and in-person from Marsden and Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

I am a person-centred (or client-centred) therapist which at its core means that our sessions are about you, your life and your experiences. While there are some experiences we all face, the specific situations of our lives, our experience of them and our reactions to them are all different. While I will bring my experience and knowledge into the room when it may help us, you as an individual will be at the centre of everything we do.

I believe the relationship between us is where the good stuff happens. The therapeutic relationship is a unique space where you can feel comfortable to bring all of who you are without judgement in a way which might be rare in your everyday life.

Above all, and this might seem a strange thing to say, our sessions will be very human. Happiness, worry, reluctance, sadness, frustration, anger, humour, desperation and anticipation (to name a few) are all welcome in our sessions.

I’ve had a variety of roles in my career in mental health and wellbeing across charities, the NHS and local council, but it’s my work as a therapist which feels most real and impactful for me. The experiences I’ve had, both personal and professional, have left me with an appreciation of every person as an individual, the understanding that there is no one-size-fits all approach to making sense of ourselves or our lives. Life certainly doesn’t make it easy. My experience is that therapy can and does provide you with the opportunity to live life (with all its challenges and milestones, ups and downs) your own way.

The first step, and it can feel like a big step, is our initial consultation. This is a free (and very informal) 20-30 minute chat about therapy, about you, and about how I work. We start to get to know each other and you are free to ask questions about counselling. At this point, it’s about making sure you feel comfortable with me and I feel confident that I’d be a good fit for you. If things feel right, we can book in your first full session.

Once we’ve started working together, your therapy will go at your pace. It can be a bit like exercising: you may be a great runner, but have never done a single pull-up; you might be able to lift three times your bodyweight, but get out of breath if you go for a jog; you may never have exercised at all. Sometimes people exercise to feel generally healthier and sometimes as part of recovery from a specific injury, old or new. Everyone’s position going into therapy is different, what they want is different and what they discover or how they change in therapy is different. My approach is to recognise you as an individual and to ensure our sessions are guided by where you are week by week.

During sessions, which are usually 50 minutes long, you’ll find I give my understanding of what you’ve brought to the session, welcoming you to correct me so that we both know I have understood. I’ll highlight things that seem significant to me (a word, a whole scenario, the way you’re talking, or my personal response). This can help us both see things more clearly or in new ways.

I may also share mental health & wellbeing information or resources with you, but you decide what is right for you; I won't set you homework or tasks between sessions.

Every 3-6 sessions, I will check-in so we can review where we are and to make sure you are satisfied and comfortable with how things are going. These are open conversations about what you like and what you haven’t liked, what seems to be working for you and what doesn’t, and to explore where we go next.

Usually, by the time of our first session we will already have spoken in our introductory chat so we’ll have broken the ice. For some of the session I’ll go into more detail about what you can expect from me. We’ll talk about what you can expect from therapy and we’ll agree the way we will work together. You will be able to ask me questions and we’ll make sure we’re starting out with a clear and shared understanding of our plan for therapy.

The majority of the session will then be your space. Everyone’s first session is different, but it often includes the client giving quite a lot of information and setting the scene for following sessions. Often we’ll explore aims and expectations and past experiences. Like all sessions, though, it will be guided by you. It can take time to settle in to therapy, there are often nerves and worries so it’s important that you know, nothing is expected of you, it’s your space and you can take your time getting to know it.

The most important part of the first session is for us to get comfortable with each other and for you to get to know what the therapeutic space feels like (whether that’s in person, online or over the phone).