Slough · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Couples therapy and relationship counselling for Slough
When the same row keeps coming back in your Slough home, or the rows have given way to a tired silence, a couples session sets aside an hour where both of you are properly heard. With Hove 85 minutes' drive away, Slough couples usually meet me by secure video, side by side or from two places, and either of you can start alone.
The practical facts for Slough
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Slough by car
- About 85 minutes with clear roads (69.9 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy (for one of you)
- NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies, 0300 365 2000 (press option 2)
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
Small children, long shifts and very little privacy
Slough is a young town, with an average age well below the England figure, so the years of raising small children, and the strain they put on a couple, are a large part of life in the borough.
Work pulls partners in different directions too. Slough Trading Estate, with over 17,000 jobs, and Heathrow a few miles east keep a good number of households on shift patterns, so one of you may be leaving as the other gets home. Houses are often full: in 2021 about a third of the town's children lived in overcrowded households, and when grandparents, children and a couple share one home there may be nowhere to have a private disagreement, let alone a calm one. Families who came to Slough for work across generations can be a real support, and they can also hold firm views about how a marriage ought to look.
Two voices, equal time, and nobody keeping score
Joint sessions give each of you the same time and attention, and I stay on neither side. We slow things down so that one of you can finish a sentence while the other actually listens, and then look at the loop you keep getting caught in. In Slough that loop might be about rotas that never overlap, who gets up with the children, money that runs out before the month does, or how much say parents and in-laws should have in your decisions. Where you come from different faiths, cultures or family expectations, those differences are welcome in the room, and I ask rather than assume. You might want to stay together and repair things, or to separate with less damage, especially for the children's sake; both are reasonable aims. When alcohol or drugs on one side are feeding the arguments, that partner can get help of their own from START, the Slough Treatment, Advice and Recovery Team run by Turning Point, and our joint hours carry on alongside. Coming alone is fine as well, if your partner isn't ready yet. Sessions together suit a couple in which both of you feel safe under the same roof; anyone frightened of their partner should go first to this page's section for people afraid of a partner, before booking anything.
What can wear on a relationship in Slough
Rotas that never overlap
Early starts on Slough Trading Estate or late finishes near Heathrow can leave you passing each other at the front door. We can set a video slot around both timetables.
No door to close
When a couple shares a crowded house with children or relatives, private conversations keep getting postponed. Video sessions can be timed for an hour when the house empties.
Parents, in-laws and expectations
In a town where families have often stayed close across generations, relatives can be a lifeline and a pressure at once. We can talk about where your relationship ends and the wider family begins.
A relative who needs looking after
If one of you looks after an ill or disabled relative, Slough Carers Support helps the carer, while our sessions look at what the caring is doing between the two of you.
If you are afraid of your partner
Couples counselling is not safe or suitable where one partner is afraid of the other. You can book the free call on your own. What you tell me on your own is not passed to your partner without your agreement, except where someone's safety is at serious risk; I explain those limits on the free call. In your message, tell me the safest way and time to contact you. Video sessions from a shared home are not private if you could be overheard or your devices are checked. If you are in immediate danger, call 999.
If there is violence, threats or controlling behaviour, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247. The Men's Advice Line is on 0808 801 0327. If you are worried about your own behaviour towards a partner, the Respect Phoneline is on 0808 802 4040 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm).
Free and low-cost support for Slough
Free services in Slough help each partner on their own. If worry or a flat mood is weighing on either of you, NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies accepts referrals made by the person themselves. Slough Carers Support helps whoever is caring for a relative, and Buckinghamshire Mind runs Friends in Need peer groups in East Berkshire. If one partner's alcohol or drugs are adding to the strain, START, run by Turning Point, works with the person using and offers support for family and friends.
- Free NHS talking therapy (for one of you)NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies0300 365 2000 (press option 2)Free NHS talking therapy for anxiety, low mood and related difficulties. You can refer yourself, with no GP referral needed.
- If drinking or drug use is part of itSlough Treatment, Advice and Recovery Team (START)01753 692548Run by Turning Point. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationFriends in Need peer support groups (Buckinghamshire Mind, East Berkshire)Mental health charity.
- Local organisationSamaritans of Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead
- Local organisationThames Hospice counselling and bereavement support
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the Berkshire Healthcare Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team, East, adults 18+ is on 0800 129 9999. Local drop-in crisis support: East Berkshire Safe Haven (Mental Health Matters) (check opening times before you go).
If you, or someone you live with, drink heavily every day, or take drugs such as benzodiazepines or GHB daily, do not stop suddenly without medical advice. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Your GP or the local drug and alcohol service can arrange medically assisted withdrawal. Call 999 or go to A&E if someone in withdrawal is shaking visibly, unusually restless or agitated, confused, seeing or hearing things that are not there, or has a fit. For milder symptoms, such as a slight tremor or sweating, contact your GP or NHS 111 the same day (NHS guidance). Counselling works alongside medical support, not instead of it.
What people in Slough ask before starting
Can we have couples counselling in person from Slough?
Sitting in the room together means travelling from Slough to Hove, about 85 minutes behind the wheel, or three trains with changes at Farringdon and then Brighton. For a couple fitting sessions around work and children, video from your own home tends to be far easier to keep up. If you would both like the room together now and then, perhaps when grandparents can mind the children, we can book a longer joint session in Hove.
We share a house with my parents in Slough. How do we get privacy for a couples session?
Couples in a full house manage it in different ways: a car parked on a quiet road in Cippenham, a bedroom with the door shut and headphones in, or a time when the rest of the household is out. We can choose a regular hour around your home life, and if someone walks in, we pause until you can talk freely again.
Can either of us get free support in Slough alongside couples sessions?
The free routes in Slough are for one person at a time, and either of you can use them alongside our sessions. For worry or depression in either partner, NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies can be reached directly on 0300 365 2000, option 2, without a GP letter. Slough CVS Community Connectors can link either of you with local groups, and Slough Carers Support helps a partner who is caring. With me there is no waiting list once we have spoken.
My husband works nights near Heathrow and won't come to counselling. Is it worth going alone?
It can be. Sessions on your own explore your half of what happens between you: what happens in you when you finally see each other, what you stop saying, and what you want from the marriage. A change in how one partner responds can shift the atmosphere at home, and he may decide to join later by video. If you feel afraid of him, read this page's safety section first.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
A first conversation for Slough couples, together or apart
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.