You get in touch
By phone, or by the form. Mel picks it up. She is not a therapist and will not ask you clinical questions.
Usually answered within one working day
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Room to
arrive.
Harbour is a small therapy centre for children, teenagers, parents and families. Nothing here is rushed, and almost nothing here is a surprise — we tell you what happens before it happens.
- No referral needed
- First phone call is free
- Usually 2–4 weeks to a first meeting
Who is this for?
Pick whichever is closest. You can change your mind, and none of these are locked doors.
I’m a parent or carer You are worried about your child and not sure whether it is serious enough to bother anyone with. It probably is. Start here I’m a young person You found this on your own. There is a page here written to you rather than about you, including what we do and do not tell your parents. Read that page We need help as a family The difficulty sits between people rather than inside one of them. Everyone is tired of the same conversation. How family work goes
Looking for help for a younger child, roughly four to eleven? There is a page for that too.
Not sure yet — show me what actually happensAbout Harbour
A building, three rooms, and people who have been doing this a long time.
Harbour opened in 2016 in the old chapel on Chapel Rise, six minutes' walk from the middle of Stroud. There are three therapy rooms, a waiting area with a kettle that works, and five of us.
We see children from around four, young people up to eighteen, parents on their own, and families together in one room. Some people come for six weeks. Some come for a year. Nobody is put on a programme.
We are not an emergency service, and we are not the NHS. What we are is a steady hour, in the same room, at the same time each week, with someone who has met this before and is not alarmed by it.
No jargon required
You might be here because…
Nobody needs to know the right words for this. These are the sorts of things people actually say on the first phone call.
- School mornings have become a daily battle
- Something happened — a death, a diagnosis, a separation
- Your teenager is fine at school and not fine at home
- You found something that frightened you
- Anger arrives much faster than it used to
- Bedtimes have stopped working
- A sibling relationship has turned corrosive
- You have been on a waiting list for a very long time
- Nothing dramatic has happened and something is still wrong
None of these has to reach crisis point first. Earlier is easier, and "I think I might be overreacting" is one of the most common opening lines we hear.
Start to finish
How it usually goes
Six steps, in order, with the prices attached. There is no assessment battery, no waiting to be triaged, and no forms to complete before you speak to a human.
Scroll sideways, or use the arrow keys
A free phone call
Twenty minutes with a therapist. What is going on, what you have already tried, and whether we are the right place. Sometimes we say we are not.
Free · about 20 minutes
A first meeting
For younger children, we usually meet parents first without them. Teenagers usually come on their own from the start.
50 minutes · £75
Sessions begin
The same room, the same therapist, the same time each week. For younger children this means playing. For teenagers it usually means talking, sometimes while walking.
50 minutes · £65
We review, out loud
After six sessions we stop and ask whether this is helping. If it is not, we say so and think again with you.
Then roughly every eight sessions
Ending is planned
Endings matter, particularly for children who have had things end badly before. We give it three or four sessions of notice, never one.
And the door stays open
Our space
You can see the room before you ever sit in it.
Most of the fear in a first appointment is about the building, not the therapy. Where do I park. Which door. Who will be looking at me. Where do I wait. Is there a toilet.
So we have written all of that down, including the bits nobody usually mentions: the smell of the hallway, how bright the rooms are, what the chairs are like, and what happens if your child wants to leave after four minutes.
Walk through the buildingWho you would meet
Four therapists and Mel, who answers the phone.
Small enough that we all know every family on the books, and that you will not be handed between people.
Ruth Ellery
Clinical lead · Child psychotherapist
Children aged 4–11
Sam Okonkwo
Counsellor for young people
Young people aged 12–18
Priya Raman
Systemic & family psychotherapist
Families, siblings, separated parents
Joanna Fielden
Parent consultation & therapeutic practitioner
Parents and carers
Money, plainly
£65 a session. The first phone call is free.
Family sessions are £110 because they are longer and usually have two therapists in the room. We hold six reduced-fee places each week at £30 — there is no means test and no form. Ask.
Full fees and the awkward questions- No referral needed. You do not need a GP, a diagnosis or a letter.
- Usually two to four weeks from first call to first meeting.
- 48 hours' notice to cancel without charge.
Not sure where to start?
A twenty-minute phone call with a therapist costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Most people find it clarifies things quickly.