Counselling for young people in the Henley area

Free counselling

Colleges like Henley College and Reading College offer free counselling and many schools are now following suit.

Anyone aged 10-25 and living in the Greater Reading area (RG postcodes) can access high quality free specialist counselling at No.5 in Central Reading (http://no5.org.uk). There are similar services in Maidenhead (http://www.number22counselling.org/)

Abingdon (http://www.theabingdonbridge.org.uk/) and Wokingham (http://www.arcweb.org.uk/youth.html).

The downside with free services is that there may be a long waiting list. The number of sessions offered can be very limited, as it is on the NHS, where available. Counselling services run by charities are able to offer free or low-cost sessions because the counsellors are volunteers and many are either on placement or building up experience.

While all counselling for young people should be carried out by counsellors with specialist training and supervision (as is the case at No.5) this is not always so.

Many charities also have well-qualified and experienced counsellors who have volunteered for years, often while working in private practice, as salaried roles are still rare. It follows that most of the experienced and specialised counsellors and psychotherapists for young people are in private practice, with their own websites where their training, experience and approach are set out, as well as their fees.