By Kate Renton | Counsellor in Torquay When you're looking for a therapist, you'll often see letters after names - MBACP, BACP Accred., UKCP, and others. It can feel like alphabet soup if you don't know what you're looking at. Here's a straightforward guide to what BACP registration actually means, and why it's worth checking before you book with anyone. What is the BACP? The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy is the UK's largest professional body for thera

By Kate Renton | Counsellor In Torquay It's one of the first questions people ask - and a completely reasonable one. Before you commit to anything, you want to know what you're getting into. How many sessions will this take? When will I start to feel better? How do I know when I'm done? The honest answer is that it varies. But that's not a deflection - there are some genuinely useful things I can tell you about what shapes the timeline, and what to realistically expect as you

It's one of the most common things people say when they first get in touch with me: "I'm not sure I need counselling - other people have it much worse." I hear it a lot. And I understand why. There's a tendency to measure our own struggles against a kind of invisible threshold, as if therapy is something you only deserve when things get really bad. But that's not how it works, and it's not a helpful way to think about it. So if you've been wondering whether counselling might