You don’t have to be good at talking to start therapy.
I’m Daniel Mercer. I’m a counsellor in Sheffield and I work online. Most of the people I see are men, and most of them had never pictured themselves doing this.
- Fee
- £6050 minutes
- Where
- Sheffield city centreand online
- Hours
- Early mornings and eveningssome Saturdays
- First step
- A free 15-minute callno commitment
Things don’t have to be falling apart first.
Some people arrive with a very clear problem. Others know only that things aren’t working particularly well. Both are enough to start.
- Anger that arrives faster than it used toUsually it isn’t about the thing that set it off.
- Anxiety you’ve been managing for yearsManaging isn’t the same as being alright.
- A relationship that’s ending, or has endedA full-time job you didn’t apply for.
- Becoming a fatherA large change, with not much room to say so.
- Work that’s stopped being survivableSometimes the job is the problem. Sometimes it isn’t.
- Not knowing anyone properly any moreCommon in your thirties and forties. Almost nobody says it.
- Something you’ve never told anyoneYou don’t have to lead with it.
- Getting on with it has stopped workingIt worked for a long time. That’s what makes it confusing.
Someone else may have suggested you do this. That’s a normal way to arrive.
No couch. Two chairs and fifty minutes.
-
01
You send a short email
Three lines is plenty.
-
02
We talk for fifteen minutes on the phone
Free. You can ask me anything, including whether I’m the right person.
-
03
First session
I’ll ask what brought you. If you don’t know, we start there.
-
04
Then usually weekly, same time
Some people come for six weeks. Some stay a couple of years.
You talk. I listen properly, which is rarer than it sounds, and I tell you what I notice. Over a few months that tends to change how you handle things. There’s no stage where you have to cry.
Things I won’t do
- Tell you to calm down.
- Tell you what to do with your life.
- Pretend to know you better than you know yourself.
- Use words you’d never use yourself.
- Stay quiet when I think something matters. That part is most of what you’re paying for.
I was an engineer for eleven years.
Mostly manufacturing, some of it here in Sheffield. I was good at it and quietly miserable, which took me an embarrassing number of years to notice. I’d have said I was fine. I said it a lot.
Then I retrained, and I’ve been a counsellor for eight years. Integrative means I’m not loyal to one method — I use what’s useful for the person in front of me, and I’ll tell you what I’m doing and why.
I’m registered with a professional body, insured, and in regular supervision. I’ve been to therapy myself. You are very unlikely to be the first person to tell me whatever you’re going to tell me.
Nobody has ever come in and told me something I thought was stupid.
Practical things, in one place.
- Sessions
- 50 minutes, usually weekly, at the same time each week.
- Fee
- £60 a session, the same online. Bank transfer on the day.
- Where
- A quiet room in Sheffield city centre, five minutes from the station — or online, anywhere in the UK.
- Availability
- Weekday mornings and evenings, and two Saturday mornings a month. Usually space within a fortnight.
- Access
- Step-free, with a lift. Parking two minutes away.
- Cancellations
- 48 hours’ notice and there’s nothing to pay. Less than that and I charge the full fee.
Adults, 18 and over, individually — I don’t do couples work, and I can suggest someone who does. What’s said in the room stays there, with the rare legal exceptions I’ll explain in the first session. If I’m not the right person for you, I’ll say so and try to point you towards someone who is.
Getting in touch isn’t a decision. It’s an email.
You don’t have to know what you want to say. “I’d like to book a call” is a complete message.
Or email me directly
daniel@mercer-counselling.exampleI read emails in the evening and normally reply within a day.