Welcome to Alison Brooks Therapy
Mindfulness, psychotherapy and yoga therapy in Woking & Guildford
About Me
Welcome, and thank you for visiting.
Hi, my name is Alison Brooks and I offer face-to-face therapy in Woking and Guildford.
After many decades working in the mind/body field, I truly believe that healing is a creative process and how we heal is unique to each one of us. I am continuing my own journey by offering Mindfulness in the Workplace workshops and Core Process Psychotherapy, a gentle, somatic form of psychotherapy with its roots in both the Eastern and Western traditions.
What I offer
Core Process Psychotherapy
I offer Core Process Psychotherapy, a relational mindfulness-based approach that integrates Eastern psychology with Western psychotherapeutic practices. This mindfulness-based approach emphasises a deep, ongoing awareness of one's body and mental processes for the purposes of self-exploration and healing. Every person is unique and that is very much respected and valued.
I can offer therapy either face to face or via Zoom. To see if you and I are a good fit for one another, the first session is free of charge and is 45 mins long. Each session after that lasts 1 hour. As I am a trainee at the Karuna Institute and am working towards accreditation, sessions are £45 per hour.
As your therapist, my role is to journey alongside you, holding a safe and confidential space in which you can explore whatever brings you to therapy and supporting you to develop a more compassionate stance towards yourself, enabling you to grow and thrive. At the heart of every human being, there is an intrinsic core of health and wellbeing.
Mindful Yoga
Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years. The word Yoga translates as union, referring to the union of body, breath and mind. Yoga is the perfect practice to bring mindful awareness to your body, enabling you to gently release long-held patterns of muscular tension in the body, lengthening the spine and creating space in the joints. Yoga is for everyone regardless of age, or general levels of fitness. I work with individuals privately on a one-to-one basis as well as holding classes for the general public.
Prices
- One-to-one session: £55
- Wednesday online class 6.30-8pm: £14
- Thursday morning 2 hour class at Christchurch Ottershaw: £19 for one off/ pay as you go, £17 for prepaid 6 weeks
Mindfulness in the Workplace Workshops
Since 2020, I have been delivering Mindfulness in the Workplace Workshops for my local NHS Trust. This grew out of the awareness that the workplace is where we spend much of our lives and can be one of our greatest sources of stress, leading to loss of productivity and staff illness.
These workshops aim to enable people to:
- Identify triggers and find tools to work on them.
- Develop strategies in the moment and longer term.
- Come away with a plan.
3 hour workshops cost £450 plus VAT
Get in touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how therapy works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of coming to therapy, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.
You can also call me on 07986692510 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first. I am happy to discuss any queries or questions you may have prior to arranging an initial appointment.
Frequently asked questions
Counselling is usually a good way to help with a current problem; something that can be discussed and - hopefully - resolved within a limited number of sessions. Over a certain number of weeks the understanding of the problem improves and away forward becomes clear. Therapy often describes work that goes a bit deeper, towards more substantial life issues and problems having a deeper effect on the client’s life. Therapy often requires a long-term approach, so the number of sessions can be open-ended.
Which option is most suitable depends on the client and the difficulties they are facing. In some cases counselling works well as an ongoing, longer-term option - or therapy can manage to resolve an issue in just a few sessions.
How long a period of counselling lasts will vary from person to person and depend on the depth of the issues they are facing. For some people a couple of sessions helps to bring their problems into focus, and they feel ready to move forward; other problems may require more of an open-ended approach.
Before we begin any work we will agree on the number of sessions we’ll undertake, and at the end of that number review our progress. As long as we both agree further therapy will be of benefit to you, sessions can continue.
My aim is to offer a first appointment - known as an initial assessment - within 1-2 weeks. Then we would arrange a set number of counselling sessions to take place at the same time every week, that is convenient for you and where I have availability. How quickly these sessions can begin will depend on the availabity of that free ‘slot’.
Everything that is said within the counselling room is private - this is one of the main ways counselling and therapy differ from talking to a friend or relative. Once you are comfortable with the format of weekly sessions and the safe space they provide, you will find the freedom to speak in confidence is of great value.
Note that there are some situations where you may be a risk to yourself or others, and there the law requires that I notify an authority; in these cases I may not be able to keep total confidentiality. Breaking confidentiality is very rare though, and only happens after the person concerned has been informed.
Usually I am asked this question by people who are nervous about entering into counselling, or when they are looking for support in coming to see a therapist. This anxiety is understandable, but a key aspect of therapy is that you should feel free to talk about any issues you feel are important to you. Having someone else with you who can be connected those issues makes this opening-up more difficult, so for this reason I do not see clients accompanied by friends or family.
My location
I work from The Guildford Institute, Ward St, Guildford within easy reach of Woking, West Byfleet and Weybridge.
Fees
CORE PROCESS PSYCHOTHERAPY
- Initial 45 minute session: free
- Subsequent sessions: £45 per hour
MINDFUL YOGA
- One-to-one session: £55
- Wednesday online class 6.30-8pm: £14
- Thursday morning 2 hour class at Christchurch Ottershaw: £19 for one off/ pay as you go, £17 for prepaid 6 weeks
Mindfulness in the Workplace Workshops
- 3 hour workshops cost £450 plus VAT
© Alison Brooks
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