About us
We’re a Community Interest Company with a pretty simple idea: good counselling should be easier to get to. Less waiting, fewer barriers and no need to wait until everything goes wonky.
We want therapy to feel more everyday. Part of looking after yourself, getting to know yourself and navigating the weird, wonderful and sometimes really hard business of being human.
More talking. Fewer barriers. Therapy for real life.
Therapy should be for everyone. Whether life feels a bit much, something’s been niggling away, or you’re simply curious about what counselling might do for you – you’re welcome here.
Our founder’s story
Hi, I’m Ellie! I’m the founder of ACN, and I thought I’d share a little bit about me, how I found my way to counselling, and what inspired me to start this journey.
ACN grew out of my own experience of poor mental health and the counselling that eventually followed. Looking back it’s easy to see that I bumbled my way through my twenties and thirties. I’d left university with a psychology degree, but had no idea what came next. My mental health was unstable and as the years past anxiety and depression dug their heels in.
I tried medication, read every self-help book going and carried around a lot of stuff nobody could see.
Then, two children later, in my forties, I wandered into an open day for a counselling and psychotherapy course. It was being run by a Facebook ‘friend’, one I had in fact I’d never met in ‘real’ life. In all honesty I think my curiosity may have been more about her and less about the training institute and its offerings. I had no calling, no grand plan, but I also had nothing to lose.
Turns out, counselling changed everything…
What I hadn’t realised was that counsellors have to have counselling too as part of their training. I’m not entirely sure I’d have gone to counselling otherwise. Turns out, it was the bit that changed everything. For the first time, I started unpacking things I’d been lugging around for years.
Fast forward 4 years and I found myself as a qualified counsellor, embarking on further training to become a psychotherapist. By the time I qualified, I’d gone from thinking counselling was something I had to do for my course to wondering why on earth we weren’t all doing it?
I guess it was this question that led me to starting ACN. Armed with a laptop and perhaps slightly overestimating the occasion, I had my Martin Luther King Jr. moment: I had a dream. That one day, “I’m off to see my counsellor” would sound as normal as “I’m off to the gym.”
Nothing to hide. Nothing to explain. Just something we do to look after ourselves.
From me and my laptop to a 150+ strong community of counsellors, supporting 320+ clients every week
Life is busy, people are complicated, and our brains don’t always help. I want counselling to be part of how we look after ourselves while we muddle through it all. After all, we’re all just trying to make sense of being human. A little help with that shouldn’t feel like a big deal.
As may be apparent by now, I’m not someone who’s great at making plans.
ACN started with just me, seeing clients online at a price that felt affordable. Before long, I was being contacted by more people than I had space to see. So I brought in another counsellor. Then another. And we grew. And grew.
As I write this, ACN sees around 320 clients every week, supported by a team of more than 150 brilliant humans who believe in what we’re trying to do.
Somewhere along the way, without ever really planning it, we built a community which I’m incredibly proud of.
These days, life looks a little different
These days, you’ll find me seeing clients, walking my dogs, spending time with my two very grown-up boys, cooking enough food to feed twice the number of people actually at the table and occasionally convincing myself I’m still young enough to sleep in a tent at a festival and that my body won’t be screaming for a mattress by the morning!
I’m still a work in progress. Life still throws its stuff at me, but I know myself a whole lot better these days and so many of my days are joyful.
It took me a while to find counselling. If ACN can shave a little bit of that time off for you, I’m glad
Our core values
Human first. Always.
Kind, thoughtful support without judgement.
Your story is yours
What you share with us is treated with care and confidentiality.
Come as you are
All identities, cultures and ways of being welcome.
Doing things properly matters
Ethical counselling, properly supported and supervised.
Therapy within reach
Fairer fees, less waiting, fewer barriers.
Your therapy. Your way.
Your pace, your goals, your decisions.
What we help with
From anxiety and low mood to grief and relationship difficulties, life’s challenges can affect all of us in different ways. Our counsellors support a wide range of emotional and mental health concerns.
Connecting you with the right support
We offer different types of support for different needs and budgets. All of our counsellors are carefully vetted and professionally supervised to ensure safe, ethical, and compassionate care. We’re here to help you find the option that feels right for you.
Thinking of becoming a counsellor?
Whether you’re a trainee counsellor or already qualified, we’d love to hear from you. Join a welcoming, inclusive team where you’ll gain experience, receive ongoing support and help provide affordable counselling to people across the UK.
Real people.
Real counselling journeys.
The stuff you may want to know
We thought you might.. Starting counselling can feel like stepping into the unknown. What happens? What do I say? Is it going to be awkward? We’ve covered the things people usually want to know, so you can arrive feeling a little less unsure.
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How much does online counselling cost?
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Our low-cost counselling is £35 per 50-minute session, with a £25 concessionary rate for up to 24 sessions.
Counselling with one of our qualified counsellors is £50 per session, and couples counselling is £75 per session.
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How does your low-cost counselling service work?
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Our affordable counselling is provided by counsellors in the clinical stage of professional training. They’re building the clinical hours they need to qualify, which means we can offer good-quality, longer-term counselling at a lower cost.
Our low-cost counselling is online and weekly, usually at the same time each week.
Lower cost doesn’t mean lower care.
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What is a trainee counsellor?
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Not someone who’s just started.
Our trainee counsellors have typically already completed around three years of counselling or psychotherapy training and are now seeing clients as part of their professional qualification.
They’re supervised, supported and still learning — as all good therapists are. You’re not their practice run.
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What qualifications do your counsellors have?
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We work with both qualified counsellors and counsellors in the clinical stage of professional training. As a minimum all our counselors will have had three years of clinical training.
Our counsellors are appropriately insured, DBS checked, members of recognised professional bodies and receive regular clinical supervision alongside ACN’s clinical oversight.
They’ve also had at least 30 hours of their own personal counselling. We think knowing what it feels like to sit in the other chair matters.
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How do I book an initial counselling consultation?
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You can book a 30-minute online consultation through our website. The cost of this is £18.
You’ll meet with a qualified counsellor, but this isn’t a counselling session. It’s a chance for us to find out a little about you, what’s bringing you to counselling and what you might need.
It’s your space to ask questions too. No need to have it all figured out.