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Individual counselling to improve your couple relationship, in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8HJ
Dr Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling, offers a novel process to help individuals with their couple relationship problems
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Updated on 27th February 2023
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Hello, and welcome to this page of information about my current service offerings for individuals who have couple relationship problems.
I have been involved in offering couples therapy for twenty-five years. Over that time my approach to couples has changed repeatedly, in the light of my learning about how to most effectively help couples to heal their relationship. (For a summary of those evolutions, please see this page: Couples therapy and relationship skills in Hebden Bridge.***)
If you are unhappy with the state of your marriage or couple relationship, civil partnership or cohabiting relationship, then I can help you.
What I offer to you is this:
- I would see you on your own, and never with your partner, for the reasons explained here: Couples Therapy page.***
- Before we meet, I would want to collect a significant amount of information about you. (You, after all, are half of the problem. And you, after all, are the only person you have any chance of changing!) I would collect that information by sending you half a dozen questionnaires.
- Once you’d returned your completed questionnaires, I would then agree a meeting date with you. We would meet for about sixty minutes – either at 27 Wood End, Hebden Bridge, or over Skype.
- During this first meeting – which might also be our only meeting – I would mainly want to do some informal assessment, to build upon what I had learned from your completed questionnaires. But the standard agenda also involves me in collecting some very specific indicators about the state of your relationship.
- I would then spend a few days reflecting upon what I have learned about you, and your relationship.
- Then I would write a report, which might take two or three days. That report would look at summarizing briefly the main things I have learned from your questionnaires; and the main things I learned from our meeting. I would reflect upon all that learning, and form some conclusions.
- My conclusions would inform me of which bits of knowledge and skill you need to learn, in order to better manage your side of your relationship. And I would transmit those elements of knowledge and skill to you in the form of six documents that I would aim to send to you at fortnightly intervals – or longer intervals if that is better for you. (I have built up a vast array of knowledge and skill related to couple relationships, over the past twenty-five years; and the follow-up documents I would send you would draw on that rich experience).
- You would then study my report and the follow-up documents, and begin to change some of your beliefs and values (about relationships) and you attitudes (towards your partner).
- You might then find that your partner, inspired by the changes produced in you, would want to come and see me for a similar process. (Please do not try to “make them” see me. I never work with clients who are “sent”! I only work with people who actively want to learn from me!)
So, as you can see, this is a psycho-educational process, preceded by an in-depth assessment process. This is very different from conventional couple’s therapy; and my approach is based on my twenty-five years of evolution as a therapist who helps individuals to improve their couple relationships.
You will also be able to appreciate that this service involves me in using up days of my life in your service. Days that I could have spent writing another book, or seeing another client, or walking in the countryside with my wonderful wife.
So I cannot offer such a high-quality service for the kind of fee that a regular counsellor charges for seeing you and your partner for an hour of conventional Couples Therapy. (You can see the information about my fees below.)
Meanwhile, here is a summary of my Main Service. (I also offer a lesser service, my [Almost] Pure Talk Therapy Service, which is described further down this page).
Jim and Renata, happily married for 36 years (in 2022); and happily couples for 42 years. Here, on the happiest day of their lives so far.
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My Enhanced Main Counselling and Psychotherapy Service:
My Enhanced, Main Service was updated on 5th August 2022. The main changes are a result of feedback from current clients, who wanted a reduction in the intensity of the “homework” component of this service. Here is the revised structure:
1 – Formal assessment questionnaires – (Function: To collect relevant data about some potential sources of your current problem[s]. Normally between four and seven questionnaires will be sent by me to you, usually as email attachments; and I may ask some supplementary questions once I’ve seen your answers. The subject of each questionnaire is determined by the problem[s] you wish to address in our work together).
2 – A counselling meeting of up to sixty minutes (which is mainly more assessment, at our first meeting. [If you opt for a second meeting, then we get to do more therapy than assessment during the second meeting]);
3 – An analytical report. (This includes: what happened at our meeting; my observations, reflections and conclusions; plus my assessment of your questionnaire answers; plus a customized list of written materials which I will send, at fortnightly intervals, over a twelve or fourteen week period). I will send my analytical report to you within seven to ten days of our meeting. (When my analysis is particularly extensive [in terms of numbers of pages], which is not uncommon, I sometimes send it in two or three smaller chunks, over a period of several weeks!)
4 – My report (or the first instalment of my report) is followed by five or six informational documents (called psycho-educational [or bibliotherapy] handouts), which will teach you the knowledge and skills you need in order to begin to resolve the problem or problems we discussed in our meeting, [plus problems or developmental needs identified by the assessment questionnaires]. These documents will be sent to you at intervals of two weeks, over a twelve or fourteen week period. [But if you find this reading load to be too much for you, given your other commitment and priorities then we can negotiate a longer gap between the sending of documents]).
Those four elements, above, are collectively called a “single package” of my Enhanced Main Service; and I normally recommend that you sign up for a “double package”, which involves repeating the above processes again – (at the end of the twelve or fourteen week period of the first package) – but with more time for therapy during our second meeting. However, I suggest this only. I do not apply any pressure upon anybody to see me twice. I do not apply any pressure on anybody to see me at all! I operate, in like, on this principle: “No question – No teacher!”
You can repeat this process as often as you need to. I estimate that close to 50% of people will only need a single package to resolve their most pressing problems. Some will require a double package. And some will need more than one double package, depending on the complexity and difficulty of their problems.
After the first one or two packages of my Main Service, you might want to switch to my (Almost) Pure Talk Therapy service, to keep your costs down; or because you have had enough documentary follow-up, and mainly want to talk about your thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and/or relationships.
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Recent Client Testimonial
♣ “Hi Jim, I’m very grateful for your latest report, which is highly detailed and analytical, as always. The content about the (personal details about my relationship) is fascinating. I think your analysis is brilliant, and it sums up so much about my life that I could never have put into words. … Thanks again…”
M.H., Wigan, Lancs. (Three “single packages” of my main service, via the telephone; followed by detailed reports).
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Renata and Jim, after 40 years as a happy couple – because we learned how to do it right!
Fees for my Enhanced Main Service
With effect from 1st February 2023, the following fees will apply:
– A single package will cost just £600.00 GBP; and:
– A double package will cost just £1,000.00 GBP – (if it is booked as a double package, and paid in advance; resulting in a saving of £200.00p GBP. (And a double package can be shared by a married or cohabiting couple who will get one meeting each, with individual reports and six follow-up documents each).
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Postscript on 5th December 2022 – Payment by instalments
Updated on 1st February 2023
In view of the current economic climate, I am willing to split a single package into three elements, and to allow clients to pay for one element at a time, which amounts to a system of Payment by Instalments, as follows:
A single package, as defined above, can be broken down into the following three elements, and paid for over a three month period:
Element 1: Sending of questionnaires; receiving completed questionnaires; setting up the face-to-face (or Skype) counselling meeting; conducting the counselling meeting. Fee: £225.00 GBP, to be paid at least three days before I send the questionnaires.
Element 2: One month after our meeting, the second payment (of £225.00 GBP) is due. When that payment arrives: I spend several days crunching the data from the questionnaires, and summarizing what I learned from our meeting. I send that report. And two weeks later I will send Follow-up Document 1. And two weeks after that I will send Follow-up Document 2.
Element 3: Two months after our meeting, the third payment of £225.00 GBP is due. When that payment arrives: I authorize the release of the outstanding four documents – (Documents, 3, 4, 5 and 6) – which will be sent at fortnightly intervals, over a period of approximately two months. (The intervals can be increased to reduce the pressure of reading/studying on you).
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Contact me
If you would like to take advantage of my Enhanced Main Service, then please contact me by email…
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My (Almost) Pure Talk Therapy Service
This service is for clients who do not learn well from written materials.
1 – First, I ask you to complete a maximum of two questionnaires;
2 – Then we meet for a sixty minute counselling session, face-to-face in Hebden Bridge; or via Skype or the telephone system.
3 – I sometimes send a very brief report after our meeting (if I feel compelled to do so, for the sake of the client’s needs); and I sometimes send a document or two with relevant information (but by no means always!) When I do send such documents, they normally refer back to the results of the assessment questionnaires, and include insights into the client’s personality and lifestyle self-management.
4. End of the (almost) pure talk therapy process.
Some of my talk therapy clients have attended for one or two sessions; but some have been consulting me for more than five years!
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Fees for my Almost Pure Talk Therapy service
With effect from 1st February 2023, the fee for a single session of this service will be just £300.00 GBP.
If you pay in advance for two sessions the combined cost will be just £500.00 GBP – which is a saving of £100.00 GBP.
Once you’ve completed your first two single sessions – or one double session – of Almost Pure Talk Therapy, the session fee will reduce to £200.00. (And at this point, if you book two sessions in advance, the total fee for those two sessions will fall to £300.00 GBP which is an additional saving of £100.00)
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Postscript: I do not offer Payment by Instalments for (Almost) Pure Talk Therapy.
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Unsolicited client testimonial:
“Hi Jim, I’ve learned a lot from working through all the materials you’ve been sending to me over the past few weeks. As we approach the end of the fourth week, I would like to make an appointment for a second session. … I think this service is great value for money, and your fees are well justified!”
V.F., Bradford, West Yorkshire. (One session of my main service, for personal and professional difficulties; including marriage problems).
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For more client testimonials, please click this link: Unsolicited Client Testimonials.***
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If you would like to take advantage of my (Almost) Pure Talk Therapy Service, then please contact me by email…
Or phone me on 01422 843 629
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Welcome to my counselling space…at 27 Wood End, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8HJ
ABC Counselling and Psychotherapy, Hebden Bridge 