Sandra Hayes-Davis

My role as a couple’s and relationship therapist is to remain neutral and provide the right environment for you both to journey together through these difficult times, to facilitate a deeper understanding of yourselves and to improve interactions within your relationship. My aim is to gently yet effectively help you uncover underlaying factors that influence your connections, such as family background and personal behaviour patterns, unravel and reframe your thoughts and feelings, rebuild your self-esteem and confidence and find a way forward.

Together we will explore and cultivate a more meaningful, loving and understanding relationship with yourselves and others.

I would describe my working style as being respectful and collaborative. Whilst I am supportive, empathetic, and compassionate, I can also be very direct, interjecting when needed, so it's important to let your feelings be known to me.

Counselling is all about change, changing things that we can and accepting those we cannot. Once you have an awareness and understanding of why things are happening in your life, you have the opportunity to make changes. For whatever reason you decided to have counselling, positive change will occur when you commit to changing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Many of my clients come to me feeling hopeless, lost in their relationships, unable to move forward or reconnect with their partners. Whatever difficulties you are experiencing in your relationship, whether you’re dealing with intimacy issues, recovering from an affair, or feeling stuck and unable to move forward, I am here to support you.

Couples and relationship therapy is suitable for any couple, heterosexual or same-sex, or any family, such as mother and daughter.

The first session is about gathering information, understanding your issues and underlying emotions, as well as for us to set some goals for therapy and the focus of our work together.

I may give you homework to do in the form of exercises, books, podcasts or body work. It is important to do your homework as it forms part of the work. Sessions and can go by fast. Homework is a way of augmenting the hard work done in session, and most importantly, it keeps you connected to your mind and body. 

Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm

I provide clinical supervision for counsellors and trainee counsellors.

My approach is primarily relational, which offers respect for you and your client group, a safe space to cry, laugh, get angry and rejuvenate, as a normal response to the emotional stresses of working with people in difficult situations, and congruence to supportively challenge that practice where necessary.

I believe that supervision needs to be normative, informative and restorative, and work mainly with the seven eyed and the cyclical models of supervision. 

I believe that Supervision is a collaborative process of support and learning. It is protected time and space for the supervisee (practitioner) to reflect on their practice, develop their competence, skills, knowledge, and creativity within the supervisory relationship (alliance), enabling them to provide a safe and ethical service to clients, whist continuously developing themselves and their practice.

The purpose of supervision is to help and support the supervisee to:

• monitor the needs of their clients
• monitor and improve the effectiveness (quality) of their work
• reflect on their work, in order to develop their knowledge, skills and competence
• maintain ethical and professional standards

• As well as to provide support and restoration to help the supervisee:
• manage the psychological impact of their work on their own well-being
• deal with a personal crisis that may be impacting on their work
• develop effective self-care strategies and build resilience. 

I offer a complementary 15-minute introductory call to answer any questions you may have, to help you determine whether I am the right supervisor for you. 

Sessions are £60 an hour or £80 for 90 minutes.