Connections Core Values
Client-centred values
Counselling should be accessible to everyone, but it isn’t always. So, what are the barriers that people face?
Accessible to everyone
Financial: It is well known that we are in a mental health crisis in the UK, it is also known that the lowest socioeconomic sector of society has the poorest mental health. This means that those who need access to this service the most, are those who face challenges in being able to afford it. While we cannot remove this barrier, we intend to build bridges over it through funding, providing a free and/or pay what you can access to help. If you are unable to pay the counsellors going rate, please let us know and we can discuss our access program with you.
A missed session is a no-show or cancellation within 24hrs of the scheduled time. We feel that charging you for a missed session is outside of our ethical values of helping you. Sometimes life can just get in the way and you might just simply be unable to face a session, or something happened last minute, or you simply forgot. We will not penalise you for this. We do however need to emphasise the importance of the commitment to the therapeutic relationship and should this happen more than twice, we will discuss with you whether or not this is the right time for you to be in this mutually committed relationship.
Physical: We are inclusive, not normative. Not everyone can access the traditional counselling room and Connections provides online access. We understand that even working online can be problematic for some and plan on offering a range of access, such as home visits and walk-and-talk after we have become established fully next year. When our in-person counselling space has opened, it will be fully accessible for people who have mobility challenges.
Nurtured Connections
Circumstance: Should you choose to disconnect from our services, we will endeavour to make sure that this is by choice as apposed to challenging circumstances. If you do not attend any appointments, we will attempt to make contact with you to see how we might remain of help.
Stigma: Whilst more of society is accepting of mental health support, there are still some big hurdles, particularly for men and stigmas surrounding counselling being for people who are broken or weak. The truth couldn’t be further from this lie. Not only is it a sign of strength to actively seek change for personal development or from a place of suffering but it is a self-serving responsibility to look after ourselves, physically, mentally and emotionally. Seeking counselling is a proactive and strength-based action and considered part of your overall self-care, just like physical health practices.
Holistic and Tailored Approaches: Connections aims to offer flexible, personalized therapy with diverse modalities (e.g., CBT, somatic therapy, person-centred approaches) to cater to individual client needs. This will allow you to co-create your therapeutic plan, ensuring counselling is adapted to your preferences and circumstances.
Relational values
Accessible to everyone
Counselling is for everyone: At Connections, we believe that everyone benefits from therapeutic relationships. Whilst many seek change and growth from a place of rupture (through repair and into growth), growth can also come from a place of neutrality, like a seed being watered. We understand what is known as the actualising tendency – a natural desire within us all to fulfil our potential – and are here to help you engage with yours.
Nurtured Connections
Mutual commitment: Relationships take work and are built over time with communication. We will be authentic, empathetic and hold you in positive regard to help create an environment where you feel safe enough to bring every part of yourself, ensuring mutual relational growth.
Transparency and Collaborative Feedback: We will nurture a transparent therapeutic process and emphasize collaborative feedback between clients and counsellors. You are encouraged to provide feedback and counsellors to adapt based on that feedback, ensuring the process is co-created and responsive.
Engagement with the Local Community: We will also build community connections by offering peer support groups, workshops, and outreach programs to reduce isolation and foster a sense of belonging. Counsellors and clients both benefit from being part of a larger, supportive local community that reinforces mental health outside the therapy room.
Blended power balance
As counsellor, also client: We work to maintain as much as possible a power balance in our relationships and demonstrate that in various ways. For example, having our own counsellors so we are both counsellor and client, understanding the full sphere of the therapeutic relationship and a and a shared experience of the therapeutic process. We are not experts and do not give out advice.
Compassion & Empathy
Creating a safe space: We will work together to create an environment where you feel safe enough to be able to bring anything that you are dealing with into conversation. We will be with you, listening and accepting of what challenges you are facing.
Counsellor-centred values
Nurtured Connections
Always actively listening: Connections is here to listen and help you create change in your life by providing a supportive, professional relationship. All connections received responded to, we will always answer within 2 business days and never let an attempt go unanswered.
Active self-care
Counsellor self-care: To be there for you, we must also be there for ourselves. We recognise there can be longer term complexities in working in mental health and make sure that we look after our counsellors, so that they can help you. We make sure each of our counsellors engages in an active self-care plan and takes time off where necessary.
Professional Development
Continual Professional Development: We all commit to regular continual CPD, including specific training in trauma, suicide awareness, and cultural competence.
Supervision: We have regular supervision where we bring our client work into conversation as another tool of help for you, our client. This helps us to not only reflect on our practice but stay updated on best practices.
Trauma Informed practice: All CC’s are suicide and trauma aware, having undertaken CPD specific to these areas.
Systemic Care: Trauma-informed care will be central to the practice, recognizing how social, cultural, and systemic factors impact mental health. We will create a safe and empowering place for those who have experienced trauma, taking into account societal and systemic inequalities.
Social Awareness
Anti-discrimination practice: We aim to create an inclusive, safe, and equitable environment for all clients by actively addressing biases and ensuring respect for diverse identities. This includes ongoing cultural competence training, using inclusive language, and adapting therapeutic approaches to clients' backgrounds. Counsellors follow ethical guidelines that forbid discrimination, ensure accessibility and recognize the impact of social inequalities on mental health. We adopt a client-centred approach that empowers individuals, integrates trauma-informed care, and remains open to feedback, ensuring that marginalized clients feel respected and supported.
Sustainability and Environmental Consciousness: Connections will be run in an environmentally sustainable way by adopting eco-friendly practices such as reducing waste, using energy-efficient resources, and integrating sustainability into the day-to-day operations of the practice.
Our Core Values — Therapy Rooted in Experience and Ethics
Connections Counselling was created not just in response to a need but from lived experience. As clients ourselves, and as counsellors, we’ve experienced both the healing potential and the limitations of the wider therapeutic industry. Through reflection and collaboration, we came to believe there were better, fairer, more compassionate ways to offer support.
Connections is built upon the real-world insights of our counsellors and clients alike. At the heart of our work is a commitment to ethical, values-led counselling offered both in Edinburgh and online across the UK. These values guide every relationship we hold and every choice we make.
Please click the headings below to explore what each value means to us:
Accessibility is a core ethical commitment at Connections Counselling. We understand accessibility as financial, physical, sensory, relational, and cultural, and we
see it as an ongoing process shaped by listening and responsiveness.
Financial access: We recognise that many people face barriers to accessing counselling, particularly those in lower socioeconomic groups. While we can’t remove all barriers, we work to reduce them through funded and pay-what-you-can counselling options, alongside open conversations about affordability. Missed sessions are approached with care rather than punishment. If sessions are missed frequently, we’ll talk together about whether this is the right time for counselling, holding mutual commitment with compassion.
Physical and practical access: Not everyone can access a traditional counselling room. We offer online counselling and, as Connections grows, aim to widen access through options such as walk-and-talk counselling or home-based work where appropriate. Our in-person space is designed to be accessible for people with mobility challenges.
Counselling is for everyone: You don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from counselling. Growth can begin from curiosity as well as distress. We work from the understanding that people have an innate capacity to grow and change, and our role is to support that process in ways that feel accessible, ethical, and grounded.
We prioritise counselling relationships that are sustained, thoughtful, and responsive to context. Connection is something that is built, maintained, and sometimes repaired, rather than assumed.
Continuity and care: If you choose to step away from our services, we aim to ensure this is by choice rather than circumstance. Where contact drops away or sessions are missed without notice, we may reach out not to pressure, but to see whether support would still be helpful and to hold the door open.
Challenging stigma: Although attitudes toward mental health support have shifted, stigma remains, particularly for men and for those who have been taught that needing counselling is a sign of weakness. We actively challenge this narrative. Seeking counselling is understood as a proactive, strength-based part of caring for yourself, alongside physical health and wellbeing.
Co-created counselling: Our counselling work is flexible and collaborative. It is shaped with you, drawing on your preferences, circumstances, and goals, and held within a relationship grounded in empathy, authenticity, and respect.
Transparency and responsiveness: We value open dialogue and feedback. You’re encouraged to share how counselling feels for you, and we aim to remain responsive and attentive as the work develops. We also commit to listening at the point of first contact, responding to enquiries within two working days wherever possible.
Community connection: We believe connection extends beyond the counselling room. As Connections grows, we aim to engage with the wider community through outreach, shared spaces, and opportunities that support mental health collectively as well as individually.
We aim to soften traditional hierarchies and hold power relationally rather than positionally. Power is always present in counselling, organisational, and community spaces, and we seek to hold it with awareness, humility, and care.
Shared humanity: We recognise that counsellors are also human, and often clients themselves at different points in their lives. By engaging in our own counselling and reflective practice, we stay connected to the lived experience of being supported, rather than positioning ourselves as experts who dispense answers. Our counselling work is collaborative. Expertise is held lightly, and the relationship is shaped together rather than directed from above.
Transparency and choice: We aim to be clear about roles, boundaries, and decision-making so that power is not hidden or assumed. You are supported to
make informed choices about your counselling, including its pace, focus, and direction.
Responsibility and accountability: Within Connections, organisational power is held with attentiveness to impact. Decisions are made with consideration for how they are experienced by counsellors, clients, and collaborators. We remain open to feedback and challenge, particularly where power feels unbalanced or
misused.
Care for others requires care for ourselves. Sustainability matters. We understand self-care not as an optional extra, but as an ethical responsibility. When counsellors are overstretched or working beyond their capacity, the quality and safety of counselling relationships are affected.
Wellbeing and limits: Counselling is emotionally and relationally demanding work. We support counsellors to work within their limits, maintain active self-care practices, and take rest or time away when needed. Stepping back is understood as a responsible and ethical act, not a failure or lack of commitment.
Pacing and sustainability: We aim to work in ways that are realistic and sustainable over time. This includes attention to workload, session pacing, transitions between clients, and the cumulative impact of counselling work.
Shared responsibility: Self-care is held as a shared responsibility rather than an individual burden. We encourage open conversations about capacity, strain, and burnout, and aim to respond with care rather than pressure. This supports counsellors to offer grounded, present, and ethically held counselling.
Learning is ongoing. Ethical counselling requires reflection, supervision, and development. We understand professional development as a continuous and reflective process, rather than a series of boxes to tick. Ongoing learning supports ethical humility, responsiveness to difference, and the ability to work safely and thoughtfully
with complexity.
Ongoing learning: Counsellors at Connections commit to regular continuing professional development to support safe and ethical counselling practice. This includes training in areas such as trauma-informed work, suicide awareness, and cultural competence, and continues to evolve as research, lived experience, and social context develop.
Supervision and reflection: All counsellors engage in regular supervision, bringing their work into reflective conversation. Supervision is held as a space for curiosity, support, challenge, and ethical reflection, rather than performance or evaluation.
Trauma-informed and systemic understanding: We work with an awareness of how trauma, inequality, and wider systems shape mental health and counselling relationships. Learning in this area is ongoing, and we remain open to feedback, challenge, and change in order to offer safe, empowering, and socially aware counselling.
We understand mental health as deeply shaped by social, cultural, systemic, and environmental contexts. Counselling does not happen in a vacuum, and neither do people. We recognise that our own identities, experiences, and social positions shape how we listen and respond. Social awareness therefore requires ongoing reflection, openness, and a willingness to keep learning.
Inclusive and anti-discriminatory practice: We aim to create a counselling environment that is inclusive, safe, and equitable. This includes actively
addressing bias and inequality, using respectful and inclusive language, and adapting counselling approaches to people’s identities, backgrounds, and lived
experiences. Our counsellors work within ethical frameworks that explicitly forbid discrimination and recognise the impact of oppression and marginalisation on mental health. We remain open to feedback and challenge, particularly where blind spots may be revealed, and commit to learning rather than defensiveness.
Systemic understanding: We recognise that distress is often shaped or intensified by wider systems such as poverty, discrimination, trauma, and structural disadvantage. Our counselling work aims to honour these realities rather than individualise or pathologise people’s experiences.
Environmental responsibility: We aim to operate in environmentally responsible ways, adopting sustainable practices where possible and holding environmental awareness as part of our wider social and ethical responsibility.
Compassion and empathy sit at the heart of all our work. They shape how we listen, how we respond, and how we stay with complexity. We understand compassion not as rescuing or fixing, but as a steady, attentive presence that honours both vulnerability and resilience. Empathy allows us to meet experience as it is, without rushing it toward explanation or resolution.
Safety and presence: We work to create counselling spaces where you feel safe enough to bring whatever you are experiencing into conversation, without pressure to perform, explain, or resolve. We aim to meet you with warmth, curiosity, and acceptance, listening carefully to what is spoken and what may take time to find words.
Boundaries and repair: Compassion includes clear boundaries and shared responsibility. When misunderstandings or ruptures occur, we aim to acknowledge them openly and work toward repair, holding care for ourselves and for one another. Staying alongside does not mean removing limits, but offering steadiness within them.
The therapeutic relationship is one where two people meet for the benefit of one but it only works when both show up with presence and care. For change to happen, we both need to commit to the work. These values are our shared foundation.
“The actuality of life tends to transcend the binary of black or white; it’s often more an intricately layered balance and blend of both. Deep within this rainbow of grey, we can discover the richness of experience and opportunities in life, which is unique to every individual on their journey. This is where we will connect, where change begins and growth occurs.”
Ian Nicholson-Kapasi