Jamie Dobson

Available for face-to-face appointments on weekday on Monday and Thursday evenings, and on Friday afternoons.

Able to deliver appointments in person or online if more convenient - please do let me know what would be preferred. I have extra availability options for online appointments.

I work face-to-face and online with young people, teenagers and young adults (with particular specialist experience of counselling those aged 11-25). I have years of experience of working in primary and secondary schools across Scotland and England, and have also worked in higher education as a counsellor and in further education in a teaching support role in the past.

I am adaptable and flexible to client needs. For under 18s, I offer confidentiality towards issues discussed in sessions (unless there is a safeguarding risk). I have years of experience providing short-term, solution-focused support to young people with a range of issues, including self-harm, suicidal thoughts, experience of abuse as well as those with sexual or gender identity issues. 

I have helped to develop and have delivered mental health training in different roles to people supporting young people and adults in distress and have also delivered psycho-educational workshops to large student groups in schools and colleges. 

I have worked in a number of small and national-level charities supporting people in crisis and have specialised in providing bereavement counselling support to young people and adults. 

I am flexible in my approach and how sessions are delivered - this will be discussed in the first meeting and I can use a range of different strategies to help you get what you are looking for from the appointments.

I was trained on an integrative counselling course - meaning I learnt a range of different theoretical approaches and I use the approaches most appropriate to your needs. For those wanting shorter-term support and targeted help managing a specific issue, I would use more solution-focused approaches - strategies to help you feel more able to cope with your circumstances. Short-term therapy tends to work better for those looking for solutions to present-day issues, rather than focusing on the impact of past experiences.

For those wanting more longer-term support, it is often more appropriate to reflect on past experiences, the impact of these and how these can also impact on relationships and experiences today. Working with longer-term clients, I will seek to help you improve your understanding and to develop and implement changes in response. Sessions may sometimes take on a psycho-educational aspect - looking at relevant theories and explaining these, to help your experiences make more sense.

I have a range of creative resources that can be used to communicate in sessions for those who find talking out loud more difficult. 

I try to adapt the session and how it is delivered to make it more accessible for you and try to discuss issues in a way that makes it feel easier for you to explain.

The first session is a chance for you to explain your current situation and difficulties. We will discuss what you are looking to get from the appointments and develop a plan of reaching these goals and making the changes you are seeking.

We will discuss practical aspects of the sessions (ie. how to arrange / change them) and agree dates and times for them to take place (whether in-person or online). For clients aged under-18, I will speak to parents before the initial meeting and provide them with details on the sessions and obtain information to help keep the client safe should any safeguarding issues arise during regular appointments.

There will be some paperwork for clients to complete in the first appointment - this will be provided during the meeting.

The first session can take up to 50 minutes (though sometimes may be done a bit sooner) and consequently is offered at a reduced rate, compared to the regular appointment price.