Happy 3rd Birthday Counselling West Bridgford!
Another year gone! 3 years ago, in the midst of the 1st Covid lockdown, I officially launched the Counselling West Bridgford website, offering 45-minute telephone counselling for individuals at a price of £30, or free for NHS or Care Workers. I was based at home, and converted my dining room into my formal office to make calls from.
3 years later
Fast forward to today, I rent an office at Pavilion House in West Bridgford, and my offer has expanded to include not only in-person and video appointments, but Couples Therapy. I’m in training with the Couples Institute, one of the leading training organisations for couples therapy.
I’m on the cusp of 2000 client appointments for the 3 years, and I’ve seen 200 clients. That works out to about 10 appointments on average per client, although that’s a bit skewed by the few longer-term clients I see, and the mode and median are both 7.
2022-23
This year has been a very busy one! I moved to full time in private practice, became a UKCP trustee, and started a monthly local networking group for therapists.
I finally left the wonderful counselling team at Nottingham Trent University in June 2022 to focus full time on private practice. It allowed me to create space for more writing as well as for more private clients.
UKCP Trustee
I also now find myself in position as a Trustee for UKCP (my professional body); I really hope the skills I bring from my first career can make a difference for the organisation and my fellow members. It is certainly “scratching the itch” to be part of a lovely team, to be back in a leadership role, and I’m enjoying learning how to be a Trustee rather than a day-to-day Executive.
A note about the website
I’ve been so delighted by the performance of the Counselling West Bridgford website. Having listened to feedback at the back end of 2020 I gave it a refresh and supercharged the SEO, which has led to half of my enquiries through the website, and it has the best conversion rate. And it helped me to get to capacity within weeks of expanding my availability this year. I still insist on managing it myself (yes, it’s all my own work!) although it’s been scary at times – hacks and being blocked inexplicably by web security software led to more sleepless nights than I could do with. And nailing the SEO for “Counselling Nottingham” remains elusive.
2023-24
So what will next year bring?! Well I’m hoping to increase the number of couples I see, and I’m looking forward to completing my formal couples therapy training. I hope the networking group will settle in and become a “must do” for colleagues. I have some ideas for a series of articles on dating / relationships, and am working (slowly!) with a colleague to develop a series of “explainer” videos which will aim to demonstrate what therapy is like for specific presenting issues.
Reflections
Thinking back a year, I would never have imagined seriously getting into Couples Therapy, and any thoughts of being a UKCP Trustee I had set in my mind to be in 3-4 years’ time; I thought I’d still be half-and-half NTU / Counselling West Bridgford with 1 or 2 associates.
Believe it or not, I do have a business strategy! In truth the timings rather than the fundamentals have changed, and I had intended to expand my offer but to groups and / or business coaching rather than couples.
That elusive location for expansion
My main frustration, when I think about it, is that a reasonable physical site where I can expand into remains elusive. There have been a few possibilities, one of which would have been amazing, but in the end was too much of a financial stretch. I remain optimistic though.
I look forward to updating you next year – we’ll see if any of my plans have come to fruition!
