We think it’s a good idea to browse around before you contact a counsellor or psychotherapist. There are many counsellors and psychotherapists to choose from in the Manchester area. You want someone who is good at what they do, is ethical and who ‘feels
right’ for you. One thing you should be aware of is a practice operated by one or two Centres (where a group of counsellors rent rooms). Imagine that you have seen an ad in, for example, Yellow Pages and you have decided to phone for more information or perhaps to make an initial appointment to see somebody. Imagine that you are told by the receptionist that you cannot make a direct appointment with a counsellor. Instead you are told that you must undergo an "assessment" at
your expense and only then will you be allowed to arrange to see one of the counsellors. So you reluctantly but obediently make an appointment to be "assessed". You turn up at the appointed day and time and are given a brief opportunity to say why you are looking for counselling. Less than half an hour later you find yourself being ushered out of the centre some £30 or £40 poorer! The person charging you for an assessment – which you don't need – is in fact the
centre landlord who will then go on to charge your new counsellor a referral fee for passing your name on! You might feel that you have been the victim of droit de seigneur (a term popularly used to describe the purported legal right, in the Middle Ages, of the lord of an estate to deflower its virgins)! Whilst this practice is not strictly illegal, you may consider it to be a con trick perpetrated on unsuspecting and sometimes vulnerable members of the public. The very term
"assessment" is objectionable – implying as it does that you have a “condition” which requires “assessing” by a guru. It also implies – quite wrongly – that the assessor needs to match you with a counsellor suitable for treating your condition. It’s a double whammy; pathologising clients and misleading them into thinking that counsellors are not generalists.
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