LGBTQ+ Zoom/Skype Video Counselling for Relationships
LGBT Couples & Groups Video Counselling. For LGBTQ+ Partnerships in difficulties: the specialist therapist working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, ace, aro, trans, cis, and queer needs via video counselling. Working from its base in Portsmouth, England, this Zoom & Skype Video Counselling Service helps struggling LGBT Intimate Relationships across the UK. Using the technology you already possess, you receive effective, dependable counselling in the privacy and security of your own home, workplace, or vehicle. Free and secure video conferencing apps connect you with a counsellor having 25 years of experience.Counsellor Dean Richardson MNCPS (Accred/Reg) has extensive skills working with a wide range of relationships, sexuality, gender identity, diversity, and queerness. Let's get together on your computer, smartphone, or tablet to help the most essential relationship in your life...Benefits of Video Counselling
Helping with Repairs to your most precious Relationship. Zoom and Skype video (or “webcam”) conferencing provides you and your partner(s) with a good counselling experience. You’ll be using technology you already have, from the privacy and security of your own home, office, car or even outside on a hike. The software apps are free to use and the data costs come from your data plan or broadband.
Whilst video counselling may have once seemed to be an inferior option for counselling, LGBT+ Couples (using two video devices – see further down) and established Polyamorous Groups (one device each) accessing Counsellor Dean Richardson MNCPS (Accred/Reg)’s experienced service find their experience rewarding and beneficial.
You can also access this effective, relationship-changing therapy service. Whether you’re sitting at home together or in long-distance relationships, you can be hundreds of miles away from your counsellor and still make use of this service to aid your most intimate and precious relationship.
Approaching his 18th year of Video Expertise
Dean is an experienced, British counsellor, centred in Hampshire (south England). He is now into his 26th year of counselling practice and 18th year of video therapy practice. He is skilled in using Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp Video, Facebook Chat, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and other services.
Comparing Video Counselling with Face-to-Face
Physical Office Location
When counselling at a counsellor's physical location or office:-
- You leave home half-an-hour (?) early.
- You drive to the area, find a parking space, pay for parking, leave the car & walk to the consultation room.
- You wait in the waiting room (or outside locked gates) until the appointment time.
- You work for 50 minutes.
- Finally, you leave the counsellor's office to make the journey back home.
Real-time Video Conferencing
When counselling using real-time video technology:
- You sit in front of your computers (tablets or smartphones) around 5 minutes before the appointment time.
- When the session begins, your video kicks in and the counsellor appears.
- You work for 50 minutes.
- At the end, you put the kettle on 👍🏻.
Video Counselling for LGBT/QIA+ Couples & Groups via live webcam/teleconferencing is available via Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp & Google Meet.
Other video conferencing services may be available (please get in contact to discuss). Apple-Exclusive Platform Apps (Facetime etc) are not supported.
*Some services (Zoom, Google Meet) charge a fee for more than two people meeting / or for meetings longer than a set time (eg couple + counsellor = 3 people, 50 minute sessions). These service charges will be paid for by your counsellor. You will not pay extra for video counselling.
High Acceptance, Low Dissatisfaction Rates
Our counselling relationship begins with an initial evaluation session (you evaluate me, and I evaluate if you might work well with my approach). In our first session, we will have some conversations and decide whether this early experience appears to have been beneficial enough to continue working together. Sometimes, extra evaluation sessions are agreed upon to help make a more informed decision, but this has been regularly unnecessary.
Two measurements highlight how people respond overall to my style of counselling: Acceptance Rate*2 and Dissatisfaction Rate*3.
During the previous twelve months (December 2023 to November 2024) my Case Measurement Rates have been:-
*1) measuring over the last twelve full months.
*2) the percentage of clients who continued to attend sessions (for at least one month) after their initial session(s). NB: some clients complete their work in a shorter time than one month; others find that a longer path benefits them.
*3) the percentage of clients who, from their experience of the initial session, felt that the service was not what they were looking for.
The average number of sessions per case is not included here. Because one client's needs differ greatly from another's, a fair comparison cannot be made. No figures are included where the clients were satisfied with the initial session and decided that this was sufficient.
Effective as Face-to-Face Counselling
Designed exclusively for a better LGBT+ intimate relationship counselling experience. Rather than travelling to your counsellor’s office each week, you call in from the comfort and safety of your own home, office, car, park-bench or even on a hike.
Using your home/office broadband service, or your mobile data plan, the cost of your Internet call to your counsellor is free of charge. You’ll use devices that you already own (no special equipment is needed).
It’s easy to prepare! Just download the free* app (Zoom, Skype, Google meet etc) and you’ll be sent easy-to-follow instructions prior to your first session.
Using your smartphone, tablet, PC/laptop, Mac, or Chromebook can feel like you’re getting better help than in-person services. This is how you will communicate with your counsellor in real-time.
Same Effective Therapy Framework
Video counselling sessions follow the same therapeutic framework as “face-to-face” sessions. Counselling remains conversation-based (and we can even use video-exclusive tools such as shared apps, whiteboards or Genogram relationship-diagrams, shared from the counsellor’s computer).
You’ll be at home or at work, so you’ll take on some of the counsellor’s responsibilities such as your privacy, safety, and personal needs such as tissues, water etc.
You’ll benefit from lower costs: no travel costs, car parking fees. No sitting around in a waiting room, neither.
LGBT/QIA+ Counselling over Zoom & Skype Video was ideal during self-isolation & regional lockdown, but today it’s a simply better choice because of convenience.
You get to work with a remote, experience counsellor who specialises in you and your partner’s relationship.
One Video Device per Partner
“Hold on… ONE separate device for each of us?!” 🤔
Yes! Let me explain how effective this rather unique approach is within couple and group video counselling.
For over 17 years, I have been providing couple counselling via video link/conferencing (Skype, Zoom, etc.). When I first started this practice, I concentrated on Long Distance Couple Relationships. Because such couples lived in different countries, each partner used their own Smartphone, Laptop, MacBook, Chromebook; they were in separate locations.
Experience from Long-Distance Couples
Working with couples in long-distance relationships for years, I notice an interesting phenomenon: when separated by distance couples could discuss matters that were previously undiscussable together.
Partners living together (same home) also benefit from a little distance: using individual devices. This approach encourages a therapeutically useful were-not-at-home sense during sessions, while also making difficult topics more discussable due to a small distance within the home.
A Distinct Approach
I recommend couples (and groups) meet with me using one device each… and sit in different locations (rooms, homes, cars etc) to each other where possible.
This is not compulsory (we can be creative otherwise), but offers us an advantage over face-to-face counselling work: by the end of our counselling arrangements we will have enabled the partners to be able to talk to each other about difficult matters not usually discussable. Individual devices offers a sense of safe distancing, where difficult topics are rehearsed within therapy.
As the majority of us own our own, individual Smartphone (yes, Smartphones work very well in video-counselling), using one device per person is easier than ever before.
Before you enter a Zoom/Skype counselling session, consider the following Video Counselling Preparations…
17+ Years Specialist Teletherapy Experience
Dean is a specialist LGBT Counsellor working with Online / Video Media. He has been using Skype, Zoom, and other video conferencing platforms since 2007. Dean introduced this service after completing extra professional Post Graduate training as a therapist, having already two decades of work experience in Information Technology. HIs Remote-video conferencing practice is rooted in his professional IT career (i.e. IBM, Microsoft, Borland, local software development companies). Merging the two supersets of skills was a natural evolution in Dean’s counselling practice to specialist with LGBT Couples.
Interestingly, as 2019 progressed, you may have noticed a growing number of counsellors adding “video counselling” to their service portfolios (a service they did not offer before the pandemic). Given that video therapy is not part of a counsellor’s qualifying training portfolio, I’d ask: how many counsellors had more than a few months (or weeks) of practical experience with Zoom & Skype video counselling before introducing their service 🤔.
It’s worth asking your potential counsellor: “what practical experience do you have as a specialist in video” prior to contracting with them.
Dean’s decades of blending professional IT and psychotherapy specialist expertise is uncommon among British counsellors. It’s what you’re seeking when working over video with a counsellor you’ll want to trust…
OnlineCounsellors.co.uk Post Graduate Internet Counselling training: May 2007
During the recent pandemic, while some therapists rushed to convert their practise to a video service, Dean Richardson’s extensive years of combined therapy and information technology experience was already in place and ready to be trusted to manage your online video counselling.
(Click right-hand side “Whois” Record image for greater detail, or click https://whois.domaintools.com/icounsellor.co.uk for live evidence of registration).
Personal Privacy & Security for LGBT Counselling
In counselling we may be working with a number of sensitive or distinctly private subjects. It wouldn’t be surprising for some to feel extra concerned about their privacy.
These off-site articles tackle the subjects of how privacy is maintained (through encryption) when using Zoom or Skype.
Zoom Video Counselling.
Skype Video Counselling.
Be Mindful of Overseas Counselling Services
As a British consumer, you are unlikely to notice that these services are not promoting British counsellors within their marketing material. You will see similar copy such as the following:-
or
… and you’ll think “that’s a British counsellor!”
Gotcha
You couldn’t be more wrong. These advertisements would be for an American Counselor (sic) 🤔. Most British consumers would be equally mislead. But how can you protect yourself by making an informed decision as to whether the online counselling service you’re considering is really based in Great Britain…?
The answer lies within the ‘Three Powerful Tips to Spotting Overseas Counselling Services’ revealed in this Blog Post…
About Dean Richardson MNCPS (Accred/Reg)
You could choose any couple / group counsellor…
Given that this will be the most intimate and vulnerable you could feel alongside your partner(s), you would want a skilled professional whose experience and specialism you could trust; whose focus would be upon your distinct relationship. Your couple, throuple or group relationship will be in good hands with Dean. He works from Great Britain, is Independent of "box 'em/shift 'em" therapy services, and identifies as a gay couple counsellor. He's also easily payable in pounds sterling! Dean already had an impressive 17 years actual video "webcam" experience - way before the first British emergency began (when suddenly many counsellors added a Video option to their portfolio, having not practised so previously! 🤔).
What makes Dean Distinct
- Dean is sensitive and effective to your sexuality / gender-identity and intimate ways of relating to each other. You'll discover quickly that Dean is an informed member of your own community.
- Dean demonstrates adept skills with lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, fluid, mixed sexuality and same-or-mixed gender relationships having over 25 years' experience as a counsellor.
- Dean avoids taking a the role of "all-knowing expert" (whether requested or projected onto him by the clients). "Experts" tell you what to do, do not learn very well from others, and struggle to adapt to new situations. A couple counsellor must be curious, adaptive, and ask questions from a "not knowing" position so that the relationship in counselling benefits from re-examination.
- Dean speaks plain English (and can swear like a virtuoso if you like, or not at all if you prefer). He works cooperatively with your relationship (no unnecessary silence, or just "hmms...").
- Dean was originally accredited by his first professional body 15 years ago; he is now an accredited registrant with The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society. Accreditation is a valued recognition of a counsellor's substantial experience. Dean is also a member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union of Great Britain.
- Dean is a British Counsellor working from the South of England. Unlike other counselling services operating from abroad Dean is registered, accredited, insured & supervised from within England (not from abroad).
If any of this resonates with you and your partner(s), you should probably meet with the Gay Relationship Counsellor: Dean Richardson MNCPS (Accred/Reg) via Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp and other secure, reliable video conferencing media.
Dean focuses on LGBT/QIA+ relationships as a specialty in therapy. He works with individuals, couples and small groups. Plus, he's qualified to a postgraduate level (Chichester PG Diploma in Psychodynamic / Systemic Couple Counselling, IGA National Foundation in Group Counselling), and works as a private practice counsellor employing 25+ years experience*.
(*Very Important: not all counsellors have such specific skills for working with couples nor groups. Those who are initially trained to use common "Individual" Counselling skills have no experience in working therapeutically with relationships. Such counsellors may try, perhaps out of misplaced goodwill, to employ "individual" techniques (multiplied by 2) but the couple or group will find that the approach is ineffective. Simply put: it's the wrong approach; your relationship is not part of the counsellor's primary theoretical framework. Remember always to ask your potential counsellor: "what qualifies you to work with our relationship?" and trust your instincts based on what you hear.
Further information to inform you…
Got a Question about LGBT/QIA+ Counselling?
Come and ask... whatever question you have about couple and/or group counselling for gay, lesbian, bisexual, aromatic, asexual and mixed-orientation relationships you might have, get in touch today to discuss your needs…
Private Counselling Services Designed for the LGBTQ+ Community. Available Exclusively to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, ASexual, ARomantic, Mixed & Queer Couples, and Established Polyamorous Groups - serving the UK Nationwide over Zoom & Skype, plus locations in and around central Havant, Petersfield to Waterlooville, Cosham to Portsmouth & Southsea, Southampton to Chichester, Fareham to Gosport, Hayling Island, Emsworth, Westbourne, Rowland's Castle, stretching westwards to Bournemouth, eastwards towards Brighton & Hove and northwards towards Liverpool, Manchester and Hull. For local residents anywhere in between, across the whole UK, and regularly further afield abroad!
Contents
- 1 Benefits of Video Counselling
- 2 High Acceptance, Low Dissatisfaction Rates
- 3 Effective as Face-to-Face Counselling
- 4 One Video Device per Partner
- 5 17+ Years Specialist Teletherapy Experience
- 6 Personal Privacy & Security for LGBT Counselling
- 7 Be Mindful of Overseas Counselling Services
- 8 About Dean Richardson MNCPS (Accred/Reg)