Integrative relational counselling
Most people start
in the middle
of a sentence.
I’m Maya, a counsellor in Bristol. If something has been sitting with you a while and you’re still not sure it counts, that’s usually a reasonable place to begin.
There isn’t a threshold you have to cross first.
People often arrive apologising — for taking a space someone else might need more, for not having a proper reason, for being upset about something they’ve already decided is small. None of that is asked for here.
Counselling isn’t only for the worst fortnight of your life. It’s also for the long, functional stretch where everything looks fine from the outside and you’ve quietly stopped feeling much about any of it.
What brings people
You might recognise one of these.
None of them need tidying up before you get here. The vague version is enough to work with, and usually more honest than the polished one.
- “I’m fine. I’ve been fine for about four years.”
- “I say yes, then spend three days resenting it.”
- “I got the thing I wanted and felt almost nothing.”
- “I can’t tell if I’m unhappy or just tired.”
- “Everyone else seems to have a next step.”
- “I keep having the same argument with different people.”
- “It ended months ago and I still can’t explain why.”
- “I know what I should want. That isn’t the same thing.”
Or, in the plainer words people search for
- Anxiety
- Self-esteem
- People-pleasing
- Relationship difficulties
- Breakups and endings
- Identity
- Life transitions
- Perfectionism
- Feeling behind
- Not knowing what you want
- Work and burnout
- Family patterns
What sessions are like
Fifty minutes a week with someone who isn’t in a hurry to fix you.
Same time each week, in an ordinary room with good light and a door that shuts. No couch, no clipboard, no technique performed at you.
You can be funny about it. Most people are, at first.
The shape of it
You talk. I listen properly, which is less passive than it sounds. I’ll ask questions, and some of them you won’t have an answer to — that tends to be the interesting part. Nothing is compulsory: “I don’t want to go into that today” is a complete sentence.
Integrative, meaning
I don’t run one method over everything regardless of fit. I’ve trained across several approaches and choose between them depending on what’s in front of us — sometimes that means understanding where a pattern began, sometimes it means what to do about Thursday.
Relational, meaning
What happens between us counts. How it feels to talk to me, what comes easily and what you find yourself editing — that isn’t the preamble to the work, it’s a fair amount of the work. Most of us learned how to be with people somewhere, and it turns up in the room.
Before a first session
You don’t need to prepare.
People often think they should arrive with a tidy account — background in order, when it started, the actual problem, and what they want from therapy. Almost nobody has that, including the people who look like they do.
The untidy version is more useful anyway. It’s closer to how you actually think about it.
What people think they need to bring
- The background, in order
- When it started
- The actual problem, stated clearly
- What I want from therapy
What is genuinely enough
- Something that happened on Tuesday
- A feeling that hasn’t got a story yet
- The thing I’ve never said out loud
- An argument I keep replaying
- “No idea, honestly”
Both are a first session. Only one of them takes six weeks to write.
Maya
I’m not a blank screen.
I trained in Bristol and have been in independent practice for five years. Before counselling I worked in arts programming, which mostly taught me how much of what someone means arrives in the pause before they say it.
In the room I’m fairly informal and I use plain words. You’ll usually be able to tell when something lands with me. What I won’t do is tell you how to live, or agree with everything automatically — I’d rather say what I notice, including when it’s inconvenient. That’s the part people say they didn’t expect to like.
I work with adults on their own, mostly in their twenties, thirties and early forties, and often with people who have never done this before and are faintly embarrassed to have booked.
- Practice
- Five years in independent practice, Bristol and online
- Training
- Diploma in Integrative Counselling, on a course accredited by a UK professional body
- Membership
- Registered member of a UK professional body, working to its ethical framework
- Supervision
- Monthly clinical supervision, as membership requires
- Insurance
- Professional indemnity insurance held and maintained
Fees & practical
The practical part, plainly.
No packages, no minimum commitment, nothing you have to ask about twice.
- Fee
- £60per session
- Length
- 50 minweekly, same time
- In person
- Bristolcentral, step-free
- Online
- UK-widevideo, same fee
- Availability
- Tuesday to Thursday, 9am–7pmA small number of early-evening slots; those are booked furthest ahead. I’ll tell you honestly if I have nothing suitable.
- First call
- Free, twenty minutesNo obligation on either side. It’s completely fine to decide I’m not the right person for you.
- Paying
- Bank transfer after each sessionOr monthly, if that’s simpler. No card details, no subscription, no deposit.
- Cancellations
- 48 hours’ noticeSessions cancelled with less notice are charged. If you’re ill, say so — we’ll work it out.
- Lower fee
- Two reduced-fee placesKept for people on a low income. You can ask for one without proving anything.
- Access
- Ground floor, no stairsAccessible toilet in the building. Tell me what you need and I’ll tell you honestly whether the room can do it.
- Confidentiality
- Kept, with two limitsWhat you say stays between us, except where there’s a serious risk to you or someone else, or where the law requires disclosure. I discuss my work anonymously in supervision. Wherever possible I’d tell you first.
- Contact
- hello@mayabennett.exampleOr the form below. I reply within two working days.
How to start
Three steps, and you can stop after any of them.
-
Send a message
A few lines is plenty. You don’t have to explain the whole situation or find the right words for it.
-
A short call
Twenty minutes, free, usually within a few days. You can ask me anything — including what I’m like to talk to.
-
A first session
If it seems workable, we book one. Afterwards you decide whether to carry on. There’s no block of six to commit to.
Enquire
Send a first message.
It comes to me, not to an assistant or a booking system. I reply within two working days — if you haven’t heard back in three, something has gone wrong at my end, so please send it again.
You don’t have to explain it well here. “I’d like to talk to someone” is a complete enquiry. I’ll ask the rest on the call.
Prefer email? hello@mayabennett.example
If you are in crisis or at immediate risk, counselling isn’t the fastest help available — contact your GP, NHS 111, or the Samaritans on 116 123, free, at any hour.