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.

Send a short email Or see what sessions are actually like

Fee: £6050 minutes
Where: Sheffield city centreand online
Hours: Mornings and eveningsand some Saturdays
First step: 15 minutes, freeon the phone

01 — What brings peopleEight situations

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 to

Usually it isn’t about the thing that set it off.
Anxiety you’ve been managing for years

Managing isn’t the same as being alright.
A relationship that’s ending, or has ended

A full-time job you didn’t apply for.
Becoming a father

A large change, with not much room to say so.
Work that’s stopped being survivable

Sometimes the job is the problem. Sometimes it isn’t.
Not knowing anyone properly any more

Common in your thirties and forties. Almost nobody says it.
Something you’ve never told anyone

You don’t have to lead with it.
Getting on with it has stopped working

It 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.

02 — How it worksFour steps
First call free · 15 min

No couch. Two chairs and fifty minutes.

01
You send a short emailThree lines is plenty.
02
We talk for fifteen minutes on the phoneFree. You can ask me anything, including whether I’m the right person.
03
First sessionI’ll ask what brought you. If you don’t know, we start there.
04
Then usually weekly, same timeSome people come for six weeks. Some stay a couple of years.

The consulting room: two armchairs facing each other across a rug, a sash window and a radiator between them, late afternoon light on the floorboards. — First floor, city centre. Nothing on the walls worth commenting on.Access — see 05

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.

The hour

I’ll ask what’s brought you, or what’s happened since last week. You talk; I ask when I don’t follow something; I tell you what I notice. If you run out of things to say, that isn’t a failure — you don’t have to fill fifty minutes, and I won’t sit in silence to see what you do.

03 — What I won’t doFive
Fee £60 — see 05

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.

04 — About DanielCounselling 8 yrs
Engineering 11 yrs

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. You are very unlikely to be the first person to tell me whatever you’re going to tell me.

Daniel Mercer sitting beside a window in a plain room, in a dark green knit jumper, looking past the camera. — Daniel Mercer, Sheffield.

Nobody has ever come in and told me something I thought was stupid.

05 — Practical£60 · 50 min · weekly

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 — or online, anywhere in the UK.
Availability: Weekday mornings and evenings, and two Saturday mornings a month. Usually space within a fortnight.
Access: First floor, up one flight of stairs. There’s no lift — if that’s a problem we work online instead, same session and same fee.
Cancellations: 48 hours’ notice and there’s nothing to pay. Less than that and I charge the full fee.
Stopping: There’s no minimum number of sessions and nothing to cancel — you pay for each one on the day. Tell me at the end of a session, or send an email. You don’t have to give a reason.

The entrance hall: tiled floor, the front door open onto the street, and stairs running up to the first floor. — The way in — through the door and up one flight.Access — see 05

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.

06 — Get in touchReply within a day

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.example

I read emails in the evening and normally reply within a day.

Counselling isn’t an emergency service. If you need help today, contact your GP, call NHS 111, or ring Samaritans free on 116 123.

Demonstration form. It transmits nothing, and the address is a reserved example domain.