FAQs about counselling

In counselling, you are recognised as the expert in your own life, meaning you have autonomy over the direction of your therapy. The counsellor will support you by facilitating the space and helping to build a trusting relationship.  This creates an environment where you can freely explore what’s going on for you, build your self-confidence and develop your understanding of yourself. Counselling does not mean providing advice, but we might signpost to resources and organisations if they might be helpful to you.  

If you would like to access therapy, it’s a good idea to have a think about what your goals might be, and what particular things you would like to address in your sessions. Our counsellors will support you in working through these issues, and will help you to develop a range of coping mechanisms and techniques to improve your mental health and wellbeing. All of our counsellors are LGBT affirmative, which means you can be assured of a safe space to explore your identity, free from judgement and confident in the knowledge that your counsellor will understand the challenges and complex issues that LGBT people experience.   

At your intake session with Indigo, your care navigator will discuss the option of accessing our counselling service. Counselling is then available to anyone with a gender incongruence diagnosis. 

No – counselling is not mandatory for continuing your care at Indigo Gender Service.  

You can access counselling at any time while you’re with Indigo Gender Service –  to be referred, please contact the care navigators.  

You will have an introductory session with your counsellor, where we will discuss what you’d like to bring to therapy, any goals and any access requirements. It will also give you the opportunity to ask your counsellor any questions that you might have about the process. 

After your intro session, you will be offered up to 15 sessions, but there is no requirement to use all of them. Your counsellor will work with you to decide how many sessions will be most beneficial.  

We offer counselling sessions over the phone, over Zoom or in person at a central Manchester location. Your counsellor will ask which works best for you in your invitation to attend your initial session.  

No – assessing suitability for medical transition is not the purpose of the counselling service.   

Our counsellors have no decision-making power over your access to hormone replacement therapy, surgery referrals etc.

If, after discussing your needs and goals with you, we feel that you may require higher intensity or longer term therapy than we are able to provide, we will work with you to find a service that can better meet your needs, and refer onwards to them. This won’t affect your ability to access other services within Indigo.  

All the information shared with your counsellor is confidential unless it poses a safety risk to yourself, or others or is a significant breach of the law.  

Your counsellor and the care navigator team can provide further details about Indigo’s confidentiality policies and how our therapies service follows government guidelines to ensure quality of care.  

Once you have accessed counselling through Indigo you are able to access up to two further cycles of talking therapy through LGBT Foundation.