What we do
Individual therapy, couples and relationship therapy, family therapy and life coaching. Each is a distinct piece of work with its own methods and its own rhythm — and the first job is often simply working out which one you need.
Every service below starts the same way: a free, unhurried 15-minute phone call in which you describe what is happening and we give you an honest answer about whether this is the right place. Nothing is booked on that call, and it is entirely reasonable to ring, listen and decide against it.
Choosing
Most people know roughly what is wrong and are much less sure which service addresses it. A useful first question is not what the problem is, but where it lives. If the difficulty is largely inside you — anxiety, low mood, grief, a past experience that will not settle — individual therapy is usually the right starting point. If it lives between two people, couples work puts both of you in the room, which is the only place a shared pattern can actually be changed.
If the difficulty involves a household — a teenager, a separation, a step-family, a bereavement everyone is managing separately — family therapy works with the whole system rather than sending one member off to be fixed. And if you are broadly well but stuck, with a decision to make or a goal that keeps sliding, coaching is a different tool entirely: forward-facing, structured and practical.
These edges are not rigid. People frequently begin in one service and move to another, or do two in sequence — therapy to work through what happened, then coaching to build what comes next. If you choose the wrong one, that becomes obvious quickly and it is easy to change. Nothing here requires you to get the decision right on your own.
Ask where the difficulty lives, rather than what it is called.
The difficulty is mostly inside me
Start with individual therapy and counselling.
The difficulty is between me and my partner
Start with couples and relationship therapy.
The difficulty involves the whole household
Start with family therapy.
I am well, but stuck, and want to move
Start with life coaching.
The four services
Four distinct pieces of work, each with its own methods, rhythm and evidence base. Read the one that sounds closest — you are not committing to it by doing so.
01 · Individual Therapy
One-to-one work for adults who are carrying something heavy and have run out of places to put it down. We start with what is happening now, work out how it came to be this way, and build something more workable — at a pace you set.
02 · Couples Therapy
Relationship work for couples at any stage — married, cohabiting, dating, separating, or trying to work out which. The aim is not to decide who is right, but to interrupt the cycle that keeps you both losing the same argument.
03 · Family Therapy
Family sessions for households under strain — teenagers who have withdrawn, separated parents trying to co-parent, step-families finding their footing, or a family reorganising itself around a loss or a diagnosis.
04 · Life Coaching
Coaching is for the gap between knowing what you want and doing anything about it. Sessions are structured, forward-facing and practical, with clear commitments between them and an honest review of whether they happened.
Side by side
The same four questions answered for each service, so you can compare them without reading four pages first.
| Service | Who it is for | Session length | Format | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual Therapy & Counselling | One adult, working on something that is theirs to carry — anxiety, low mood, loss, stress, self-worth | 50 minutesOften 6–12 sessions | In person or online | A free 15-minute call, then a first session usually within the same week |
| Couples & Relationship Therapy | Two partners working on the relationship between them, together in the room | 60 minutesCommonly 8–16 sessions | In person or online | A free 15-minute call — either of you can make it, and it does not commit the other |
| Family Therapy | Two or more members of a family or household, including parents and adult children | 60 to 75 minutesOften 6–10 sessions | In person or online | A free 15-minute call with one adult, to work out who should be in the first session |
| Life Coaching | An adult who is functioning but stuck, and wants structure, momentum and accountability | 60 minutesA block of 6–8 sessions | In person, online or phone | A free 15-minute call to test the fit and check that coaching is the right service |
Session lengths and typical courses describe how this practice usually works; they are not a prescription, and the length of any piece of work is agreed with you and reviewed as it goes. Fees for every service are listed in full on the fees page.
Whichever you choose
The methods differ. The conditions do not.
What you say stays in the room. The narrow legal exceptions — serious risk to life, safeguarding, a court order — are explained in writing before your first session rather than discovered later.
Every service starts with a free 15-minute call. If this practice is not the right fit, we will say so on that call and point you somewhere more appropriate.
No minimum commitment and no package to buy up front. Work continues while it is useful and stops when it is not, and you can pause or end at any point.
All clinical work is reviewed in regular independent clinical supervision — the standard safeguard across UK practice, and a protection for you rather than a formality.
Sessions run from the consulting room in Chelmsford or by secure video, on the same terms and with the same continuity. Many people mix the two around work and childcare.
Every few sessions we stop and ask whether this is helping. If it is not, we would rather change the approach — or help you find a different practitioner — than keep going quietly.
Not sure?
The free 15-minute call exists for exactly this. It is a short, ordinary phone conversation: you describe what is going on in whatever words you have, and we talk through which service fits, how it would run, and what it would cost.
It is not an assessment and there is nothing to prepare. Nobody is put on a list, no notes are kept if you decide not to go ahead, and it is entirely reasonable to ring, listen, and then decide this is not for you.
Family Restore Ltd is a private practice offering planned appointments. We do not provide crisis cover, out-of-hours contact or urgent assessment, and messages are answered during working hours. If you need help now, please use the services on our urgent help page — several of them operate 24 hours a day, every day.
Getting started
Fifteen minutes on the phone is usually enough to work out what would help. There is no charge for it and nothing to sign afterwards.
Enquiries are answered within one working day. If you are not sure which service you need, say so — working that out is part of the call.
