When you’re ready to proceed to submitting a referral you can do so via the Getting Started page. At the bottom of the page you can see the status of our current availability (it’s displayed beneath the button you click to submit a referral). 

Once we receive a referral we will usually be able to review it within 2 working days. We will assess the suitability of the referral and whether we believe we can help. We will let you know the outcome via email and, if we can help, we’ll arrange an initial appointment at a mutually-convenient time. In the event we do not accept a referral, unfortunately we do not currently have the resources to provide detailed information about our decision-making process. Regretfully, we are also unable to offer specific advice or recommendations to people we haven’t met (as we can’t know what’s going to help until we’ve gotten to know someone and made sense of things together).

All clients of Verdure Psychology work with a Clinical Psychologist. This is a protected title and it is a criminal offence for someone to use it without being qualified to do so. In order to be qualified, clinical psychologists have to be registered with the professional regulatory body (HCPC) upon completion of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy).

Competition for places on the doctorate is highly competitive and typically requires years of clinical experience and academic success before even being offered an interview. Only a small proportion of applicants are successful each year. 

Therefore, when you work with Verdure Psychology, you can be reassured that you will be working with a professional with high-level skills that have been homed through years of clinical practice. Clinical Psychologists have vast experience of assessing and treating people of different backgrounds. They are experienced in working with people with a broad range of presenting issues across varied clinical settings (such as community clinics, hospitals, inpatients units and outreach services). As therapists, clinical psychologists are trained in multiple different approaches & evidence-based interventions. This means they can suggest the treatment most suited to the individual (as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach offered by therapists who are only trained in one model). They can also combine approaches: integrating the most helpful aspects of different models to develop a bespoke treatment plan that works for the person.

Verdure Psychology works with young people (aged 16+) and adults in the UK who are experiencing any of the following:

• Low self-esteem / self-worth
• Confidence issues
• Anxiety / fear
• Low mood / depression
• Feeling lost / lacking a sense of identity or purpose
• Difficult thoughts, feelings or behaviour
• Stress / frustration
• Self-criticism
• Shame
• Emotional numbness
• Feeling disconnected
• Body image issues
• Interpersonal difficulties
• Lack of resilience
• Loneliness

Because Verdure Psychology is an online service, we are unable to work with people who are experiencing significant risk issues (such as suicidal ideation, self-harm, drug/alcohol addiction, and severe mental health conditions such as psychosis and eating disorders). This is because treating people with these types of difficulties requires the therapy to be balanced with robust risk assessment and management. Although different practitioners have varying opinions about this, based on our clinical experience, we feel certain sources of information vital in assessing significant risk (such as non-verbal communication) is more comprehensive when gathered in person rather than virtually. We recommend people with severe mental health issues and/or risk issues seek advice from their GP about the options available to them in their local area. Information about how to access support for people in crisis can be found here.

If you understand and agree with the above, please proceed to the treatments page to find out more about our services.

All our treatments rely heavily on consent and we would never provide intervention to someone who did not want it. We would not work with someone who was being pressured or coerced to seek therapy (or those who, for whatever reason, are unable to provide informed consent for the therapy).

Sometimes ethical dilemmas present themselves which means the therapist has to think with the person about sharing information with others. For example, someone may not consent to information being shared but describe significant risk issues (such as drug/alcohol misuse, abuse, suicidal ideation or potential life-threatening conditions such as eating disorders).

At Verdure Psychology, we believe there’s a difference between privacy and secrecy. We always respect individuals’ right to privacy and we want the confidential therapeutic space to feel safe so the person can speak openly knowing they won’t be judged or criticised. However, it would not be ethical for to keep secrets if we assess that withholding this information would present a significant risk to the person or someone they know. These dilemmas would be discussed with the person if they arise and a collaborative decision would always be our first choice (such as the person passing the information on themselves or taking independent action to reduce the risk). We pride ourselves on transparency and so, before signing up with Verdure Psychology, we want you to know that there are rare occasions when therapists need to share information without consent (such as submitting a safeguarding referral to the local authority if we considered a young person to be at risk of harm). Confidentiality is of vital importance to us but the safety of the people we work with is always our first priority.

Young People (16+)

Having worked for many years in child and adolescent mental health, Dr Jenkinson recognises the importance of involving parents/carers in the process of assessment and therapy. Even when there’s tension in relationships, significant others can often provide helpful insights and support (and, where helpful, we can consider providing coaching for parents in order to facilitate this).

Including parents at certain points during the therapy process often enables them to understand their child’s difficulties in more depth, enhances communication, and facilitates parents to find new ways to support them (enhancing the effectiveness of the therapy). However, like adults, young people (aged 16 or 17) are presumed to have sufficient capacity to make their own decisions about therapy, unless there’s significant evidence to suggest otherwise. This means the extent to which significant others are invited to participate in the therapeutic process is typically entirely up to the young person to decide.

Adults

We have experience working with adults across the life span. Therapy is usually conducted on a 1:1 basis but, at the person’s request, we can consider involving significant others where it is felt to be helpful.