SAFE with Steph

07/07/2026

Being transparent and making things straightforward is important to me, so here's what you need to know about the service I provide 🧎‍♀️‍➡️🧎‍♂️

I'm Steph and I'm a trauma-informed, integrative counsellor with thirteen years of experience working across different counselling settings.
I rent a counselling room in a fit for purpose wellness hub in Coxhoe (Durham Wellness Space), where there are different types of professionals dedicated to helping you get your needs met.

Who I see:
*Adults
*Children (11+)
*Couples

Counselling Sessions
Wednesdays and Fridays are my current working days. I offer face to face appointments from 2pm - 5:30pm on Wednesdays and floating times for face to face and online work on Fridays. Please just ask and I'll send you my availability for this.
If you're an adult and travelling to me isn't an option, it might be possible to have sessions online or on the phone.

- Counselling sessions last approximately 50 minutes.
- The first session is an assessment session, where i'll take some basic details and we'll talk about what you'd like to get out of your sessions.
- How many sessions you have is up to you.

Contacting me
You can:
* Use Facebook messenger
* Phone or text me on 07975865312
* Email me at [email protected]


Fees
- Sessions for adults and children cost £50 for a 50minute session.
- An initial Couples Counselling Assessment session is £40 for 50mins. All sessions after that are £60 for 50 minute sessions.
- I offer lower session rates for students and unemployed people (from £40 upwards).

Travel links and parking
*Bus - there's a bus stop directly opposite Durham Wellness Space, and another just a short walk down the road.
*Car - you can park for free on Church street. The building itself isn't able to offer any parking, but there are many free parking spaces on the opposite side of the road, which stretches all the way down the street.
You can also park for up to 4 hours for free in the Village Hall car park, just next door.

Accessibility
The room I rent in Durham Wellness Space is upstairs. There are approximately 15 steps up to the counselling room.
If you are attending with your child, there is a small waiting area downstairs with seats where you can wait.

Ultimately, making counselling as easy as it can be for you to access is the aim. Then once you're in the room we can make a start on whatever it is you've came for ✨

06/07/2026

Had a rare free moment today, so sat with my current favourite resource - Inner Active Cards 🃏
I find if there's something I'm unsure about and can't quite work out what it is, if i sit and look through these cards I can usually find a few that call to me.

Using parts cards, objects, or even a random bag of buttons can help us tap into something deeper and help us make sense of what we're feeling.

💡Today I learned that I've got some excited parts for being free to learn and work again. I've also got some parts who can't wait to sit with clients, and are curious about what issues they'll bring. Then i've got some parts who are worried about the transition, alongside parts who are reminding me to look after myself and factor in restorative things. What a lush bunch 💜

If any of this peaks your curiousity, you might benefit from doing some work with your parts.

In Internal Family Systems, we connect with different parts of ourselves and this helps us feel more balanced inside. Just like an actual family, if you improve individual relationships, the family unit gets stronger as a whole 🏋️‍♀️

*For anyone interested in the card deck, more info here: https://www.inneractivecards.com/the-house-in-your-head.html

01/07/2026

Hello everyone!
I'm pleased to report that my little owl, who's been waiting patiently on the bookshelf in my home, has found a new perch 🦉✨

As of August, I am reopening my counselling door, this time from the Willow Room in Durham Wellness Space - Durham Wellness Space #

My time away from practice has felt long, but necessary, and my "learning in progress" has taken two beautiful forms.
Professionally, I am now a Level 1 qualified Internal Family Systems (IFS) counsellor, a transformative approach I'm excited to bring into our sessions.
Then personally, my world expanded as I welcomed my first baby into the world. She is an incredible human and yet being her mam has deeply put me back in touch with my vulnerable parts. Fortunately, alongside this, I was also reunited with the parts of me who love to learn and play too. She is teaching me so much.

I am returning to my practice transformed, with an expanded toolkit, a new appreciation for the highs and lows of parenthood, and a compassionately held space ready for you to do whatever you need to do.

My door physically reopens on Wednesday 12th August for face-to-face sessions from my new room in Coxhoe, though telephone or teams counselling can be arranged from Wednesday 5th August onwards.

If you would like to resume our work together or book a counselling session, please either contact me here via messenger, call or text me on 07975865312, or email me at [email protected]

More details soon! It feels great to be back 💜

13/10/2023

👋 NEW UPDATE: At the start of the month I made the decision to temporarily close SAFE with Steph while I go off to do some further studying👩‍🏫
After many conversations and time spent pondering, I've set myself a goal to upskill myself and build up my experience in working with trauma, so to better work with my clients.

🌟 So just to clarify, I'm not accepting any new clients for the forseeable, but I do hope to be back in the future with a new updated service!

17/05/2023

Normal service has resumed and I'm back in my lovely wee counselling room as of this week 🙋‍♀️
Took this photo in my time off; 89 steps from top to bottom 🫣 leaving it here to remind myself and anyone else who finds it helpful to just take things 'one step at a time' when something seems too huge or daunting 👣

28/04/2023

Just to notify everyone, I'm taking some time off as of today, returning on 16th May 🌴🌲🏞

We all need a bit of downtime, no matter how hectic life gets, so I'm practicing intentionally making time for my own self care 💜

13/04/2023

And for this evenings extra learning: Session 1 on working with Anxiety 😧😕 and Perfectionism 💯👌

❓️ Did you know that some people can perceive worrying to have a 'positive' payoff? And... we even believe the same is true for perfectionist behaviours as well.
💯 For example, it can be thought that keeping your standards high and doing your job 'perfectly' will mean you are likely to have job security.
🧐 However, overworking (driven by our anxious thoughts) can lead to burnout and striving to be 'perfect' can damage our self-esteem and keep us in a negative cycle of never feeling good enough.

💡Becoming aware of our cognitive biases, understanding how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours interlink and challenging our negative core beliefs are just some of the ways we can move towards experiencing less anxiety and breaking the chains of perfectionism.

💜 Here is a lovely video from The School of Life on Self Compassion to combat all those critical thoughts and 'shoulds, musts and ought to' thoughts we have:

It’s all too easy to be extremely tough on ourselves; we need – at points – to get better at self-compassion. Here is an exercise in how to lessen the voices...

30/03/2023

At the end of a busy month, I've had a little change around of my Counselling space!
I'm quite hopeful anyone who comes to sit in my room can feel safe and relaxed enough to talk through whatever it is they need to 🛋😌