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Our space
Uncertainty about a building does more damage than most people realise, particularly to children who need to know what is coming. So this page describes all of it — including the parts nobody usually writes down.
Getting here
A stone building set back from the road, six minutes’ walk from the middle of a fictional Stroud. Everything below is written the way a genuinely useful arrival page would be written, for a building that was never built.
There is no such building. The building, the rooms, the parking and the travel notes on this page are invented. There is no such address, and nothing here should be used to find a real property.
Six spaces in the yard behind the building, reached through the archway to the left. One marked bay by the back door for blue badge holders, three metres from a step-free entrance. If the yard is full there is unrestricted on-street parking on Chapel Rise after 10am, and the long-stay car park is four minutes’ walk.
The station is an eight-minute walk, slightly uphill at the end. The 41 and 44 stop on Chapel Rise, two streets away. Buses from Nailsworth and Painswick both stop within five minutes’ walk.
Six minutes from the market square, mostly flat until the last thirty metres. Two bike hoops in the yard, under cover, and a place inside for a helmet.
| Stroud | Six minutes from the town centre on foot. |
|---|---|
| Nailsworth | About 10 minutes by car; the 41 bus stops two streets away. |
| Painswick | About 12 minutes by car, free parking on site. |
| Stonehouse | About 12 minutes by car or a short hop on the train. |
| Cirencester | About 30 minutes by car via the main road. |
| Gloucester | About 25 minutes by car; direct trains take 15 minutes. |
Arrival
There is one door and it is blue. During opening hours it is unlocked, so you push it and come in. No bell, no intercom, no standing on a doorstep being watched from the street.
There is no reception desk. Mel is at a table on the left; if she is on the phone she will wave. Nobody asks you out loud why you are here, and nobody says your surname in front of anybody else.
Arriving five minutes early is about right. Fifteen minutes early means a longer wait in a room that may have another family in it.
If you are late, come in anyway. The session will end at its usual time, but a short session is much better than a missed one, and nobody will make a thing of it.
The waiting area
One long bench with cushions, two armchairs, and a corner where a small child can be on the floor with something. A jug of water and a kettle that works. Wifi, with the password on the wall rather than something you have to ask for.
Books, none of which are about feelings. A basket of fidget items. A box of ear defenders, in two sizes, that anyone may borrow without asking.
There are no leaflets about mental health conditions on the walls, no posters telling you to be kind to yourself, and no radio.
At busy times — after 3.45pm — there may be one or two other families in here. If that matters to your child, ask for a slot before 2.30pm and we will find one.
The rooms
Each is described in more detail than seems necessary, which is exactly the amount of detail an anxious eleven-year-old wants.
Ground floor, at the back, away from the road. The smallest room, deliberately — small rooms feel safer to small people.
First floor, up one flight, at the front. Tall window, long sofa, one armchair. It looks like a room in somebody’s house, which is the point.
Ground floor, front. The largest room, with five soft seats in a loose circle and a low table nobody has to sit behind.
Sensory detail
Written for anyone — child or adult — who needs to know this before they arrive rather than after.
Warm bulbs throughout, no fluorescent tubes anywhere in the building. Every room has lamps, and the overhead light can be off in any of them. Blinds in two rooms.
Carpet on the stairs and in the corridor. No music, no radio, no television. There is a white noise machine on the first-floor landing. The front rooms pick up some traffic; the back of the building is genuinely quiet.
Old building, wooden floors, and whatever Mel is making in the kitchen. We do not use plug-in fragrance, scented candles or diffusers, and we ask staff not to wear strong perfume.
Warm — sometimes too warm in the Long Room in summer, which is why the sash window opens. Blankets in all three rooms. The Nook is the warmest in winter.
Cork and wood floors, wool cushions, a cotton blanket in each room. Ear defenders and a weighted lap cushion available in any room, without having to explain why.
Five of us, and you will only meet the ones you need to. Nobody will touch you, hug you, or shake your hand unless you offer first.
Come and look. Ten minutes, mid-morning, no appointment, no questions asked. Some children need to open every door and look at the sand tray once before they can consider coming back. That is a completely reasonable request and it costs nothing.
Access
It is a listed nineteenth-century building. Some of this is very good and one part of it is not.
If there is something you need that is not listed here, ask. Almost everything is easier to arrange than people expect, and being asked is never an imposition.
The fifty minutes
A question people are oddly embarrassed to ask, and the answer is genuinely: whatever suits you.
Most parents do. Wifi, a kettle, a comfortable bench, and nobody making conversation with you. For children under about ten we ask you to stay in the building.
Fifty minutes is plenty. There is a café two doors down with a corner table, and benches in the churchyard opposite. Be back five minutes early.
Completely legitimate, and for some parents the only quiet fifty minutes of the week. The yard is right outside the back door.
Be reachable, and be back before the end. Nothing dismantles a good session faster than a child coming out of a room having said something difficult, and finding nobody there.
Yes. Ring Mel and come at a quiet time — usually mid-morning or straight after lunch. Ten minutes, no appointment, nobody asks you anything. A surprising number of families do this and it often settles a child completely.
Between 9.30am and 2.30pm on weekdays the building is close to empty. After school, from 3.45pm, there can be three or four families in at once, which means voices in the corridor and someone in the waiting room.
Fifty minutes gets you into town and back. There is a café two doors down with a decent corner table, and the churchyard opposite has benches. For younger children we ask you to stay in the building.
Always. A toy, a blanket, a pair of ear defenders, a dog-eared book. Bringing something familiar into a new room is a good instinct, not a babyish one.
Ten minutes, no appointment, mid-morning. Ring Mel first so she knows to expect you, and bring whoever needs to see it.