Frequently Asked Questions

Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about counselling & psychotherapy with me. 

The Practicalities

Where are you based?

I am based in Cheshire, near Manchester. All of my therapy sessions are online via Zoom and you’re welcome to work with me wherever you are in the UK.

How long do sessions last?

Sessions last 50 minutes and take place weekly.

How many sessions will I need?

The answer to this depends on why you’re coming to see me. Some people come for just one session, others feel they need support for a much longer period. We can adjust and review as we go and you’re never obliged to keep having sessions if you don’t want to.

How much do sessions cost?

My current fee is £110 per 50 minute session with an optional 15 minute introductory Zoom call. If you are a previous client and cannot afford my current fee, please get in touch to discuss options.

Do I need to be in crisis to come to therapy?

Absolutely not. You don’t need to have hit rock bottom to deserve support. A lot of the people I work with look completely fine on the outside – holding down jobs, maintaining relationships, keeping it all together. But inside, there’s a persistent sense that something isn’t right. If you’re exhausted by your own inner critic, struggling with relationships, or just feel like you’ve been running on empty for longer than you can remember, that’s enough of a reason to reach out.

How do I contact you?

The best way to contact me is by email – hello@alicetew.com.

I aim to respond within 48 hours.

My qualifications and experience

What sort of therapist are you?

I’m a humanistic integrative and EMDR psychotherapist.

Humanistic means I believe that when people are given the right conditions, they will naturally move towards healing and growth. In practice that means I accept you as you are, set aside my own experiences to fully hear yours, and bring genuine warmth and empathy to our work together.

Integrative means I draw on a range of therapeutic approaches rather than being limited to one. In particular I work with unconscious processes (the parts of you that operate outside your awareness), attachment theory (how your earliest relationships still shape you today), trauma and relational trauma, and shame (which sits at the root of that persistent feeling of never being good enough).

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a gold-standard, evidence-based therapy for trauma. I integrate EMDR into my work where it is helpful, particularly for clients carrying childhood trauma or experiences from the past that still feel very present. It works at the level where trauma is actually held, in the nervous system and the body, rather than just the level where you can talk about it.

My work is always relational, trauma-informed and focused on root causes rather than surface symptoms.

What qualifications do you have?

  • BSc (Hons) Counselling & Psychotherapy – a BACP Accredited degree validated by Coventry University.
  • EMDR Parts 1-4

You can see the additional training I have done on my About Me page.

Are you registered with a professional body?

Yes I am an Accredited Member of BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy), which is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority. That accreditation isn’t automatic, it requires demonstrating a significant level of clinical experience and ongoing professional development. You can find my register entry at number 236989.

How can I be sure you work ethically?

Working ethically is very important to me, not least because the people I tend to work with have already been harmed by people who were supposed to be caring for them. I follow the BACP Ethical Framework and I have specialist clinical supervision every month for attachment issues, EMDR and supervision of my own supervision. I also hold full professional insurance, and have been practising for over a decade without any complaints.

What issues do you have experience working with?

Most of my work is with people who are stuck in survival mode who are overwhelmed by their emotions, exhausted by their inner critic and quietly wondering if this is just what life feels like. A lot of my clients are neurodivergent, late-identified AuDHD adults, or people who’ve started to realise that a difficult childhood is showing up in their adult relationships and sense of self.

More specifically, I work with childhood trauma, CPTSD, shame, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, emotional abuse, relational trauma, grief, burnout, codependency and emotionally immature or unavailable parents. I also support people exploring a late autism or ADHD diagnosis (formal or self-realised) and what that means for their history and identity.

If you’re not sure whether what you’re carrying fits neatly into a category — that’s okay. Most of it doesn’t. Drop me an email and we can talk it through

I've got questions about childhood trauma
What are emotionally immature parents?
Emotionally immature parents aren’t necessarily unkind or deliberately harmful but they struggle to manage their own emotions, which means they can’t consistently meet their children’s emotional needs either. Growing up with emotionally immature parents often leaves you feeling responsible for everyone else’s feelings, uncertain about your own needs, and with an inner critic that’s frankly exhausting to live with. A lot of my clients didn’t realise this had a name until well into adulthood. If you grew up feeling like you had to be the steady one, or like your feelings were too much or not enough, this might resonate.
What is CPTSD and is it different from PTSD?
PTSD tends to develop after a single traumatic event. CPTSD – complex PTSD – develops after prolonged or repeated trauma, particularly in childhood. It’s less about one specific thing that happened and more about the cumulative effect of growing up in an environment where you didn’t feel consistently safe, seen or supported. It often shows up as difficulty regulating emotions, a harsh inner critic, deep shame, and real struggles in relationships. Many of my clients have carried these feelings for years without ever connecting them to their childhood, they just assumed something was wrong with them. Nothing is wrong with you. These are entirely understandable responses to what you’ve been through.
What does AuDHD mean?
What is AuDHD and do you work with neurodivergent clients?
AuDHD refers to being both autistic and having ADHD. It’s far more common than many people realise, particularly among adults who were never identified as children. If you’ve spent your life feeling slightly out of step, masking to fit in, burning out in cycles, or wondering why everything feels so much harder for you than it seems to for everyone else – this might be part of the picture. I’m neurodivergent myself, and a significant number of my clients are late-identified AuDHD adults. I don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach, and I don’t pathologise the way your brain works. We just work with it.
What is EMDR and can it really be done online?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It’s a trauma therapy that helps your brain process distressing memories that have essentially got stuck – so that when you think about them, they stop feeling so raw and present. It sounds a bit odd when you first hear about it, but there’s a significant body of research behind it and it can be an effective approach when years of talk therapy alone hadn’t shifted things. Yes, it absolutely can be done online – I slightly adapt the technique via Zoom and it’s just as effective. 

What is therapy like?

What happens in the first session?

The first session is an assessment session. This means the focus on us getting to know each other. I need to understand what it is that is bringing you to therapy and whether I think I am the right therapist for you to work with and you need to get a feel for how I work and whether you feel comfortable enough to talk to me.

Can you give me advice or tell me what I should do?

From my extensive training and experience, what I know is that what works for one person won’t work for someone else. The person who has the best idea of what you should do is you. You might feel that you don’t know and if that’s the case, my job is really listen to what you’re struggling with and to help you to remove the obstacles in your way so you can find some clarity about your situation. I want you to get to a point where you can manage without me and I do this by helping you to know your own mind.