Relate Avis 

Booked an online one on one mediation session. The mediator was 10 mintues late! For the entire session I felt that I was interupting something and the mediator wanted to be somewhere else.

The article offers no help to someone who observes a developing gaslighting and is being cut out of their child's life. The article was helpful in that it confirmed that my child has been gaslit over a number of years and I have also been made to feel inadequate and a 'bad mother/grandmother' by his wife. I am very anxious about his mental health. There is no guidance here as to what I can do.

Doing the quiz reinforced how I was feeling and that I should try and get out of my present relationship.

I had an initial face to face appointment with Rebecca at the Bradford centre on the 30th of June 2023 at 11:30am. I was very much impressed by her listening skills which reflected empathy. For the whole month of July I attended carefully planned therapeutic sessions and every session was very effective. I definitely would recommend this service. Thank you Rebecca and the reception team including Tina and George.

We were recommended contacting Relate for relationship counselling. Our household income means we have to pay full-rate of £140 per hour.

Had our initial consultation with one lady who was very unassertive, did not demonstrate any active listening skills and generally did not give any confidence that she would be an effective counsellor. I gave this session benefit of doubt as more of a fact finding session to establish a baseline. We were told we would be put on a waiting list and typically they try to match you with the same counsellor. Their approach after the initial joint consultation is to have individual one-to-one sessions with the counsellor and then bring it back to a joint session.

The turnaround was fairly quick to be allocated a counsellor. However, we were allocated to a different gentleman and my immediate concern was wasting an hour with the initial counsellor and having to go over all the same information. Relate assured me that the new counsellor would have access to the notes on the system. To be fair he did know some of our background although I did have to go over a lot of ground already covered.

This second session was a one-to-one with the counsellor that I attended. The counsellor was almost 10 minutes late, he said he must have joined the wrong zoom link. Much like the first session I found the counsellor to be lacking in core skills such as active listening and ability to ask probing questions. He seemed overwhelmed with the conversation and didn't know where he was going. I found myself having to lead the conversation at times just to avoid long pauses and silence. He kept looking away like he didn't know what to say. He could see my guitar in the background so he started reminiscing about the time he saw Jimi Hendrix in concert and asked me who my favourite musicians are - this not what I'm spending £140 per hour to talk about. The whole hour was spent with me providing information and I did not receive any analysis or commentary back. At the end he asked if I found the session helpful, I said "no, not at all".

Both counsellors had more of an aura of church hall volunteers than qualified therapists. I would not recommend Relate to anybody.

I have since found an independent therapist who in one session has been brilliant. She was able to control the conversation, hear both sides, probe deeper into what was being said and identify some root cause issues that have been simmering for some time.

I'm glad I cut my losses early with Relate, but I am frustrated that I it cost me £280 to waste my time with them in the first place.

Contacted relate in May. No reply till June when I sent a follow up message. To their credit they apologised and tried to find me an appointment. However, all appointments in my area are online. I house share and don’t have the privacy for this. They didn’t try and find a way round this and just sent me a directory for other therapists in the area I could see privately. This is objectively the professional equivalent of telling someone to F off. A very unwelcoming experience and a bit of a blow when it was hard to reach out in the first place. I’m aware they’re probably under a lot of pressure in terms of demand. Doesn’t excuse basic manners or putting an automated response on emails to let you know you’ve been added to a waitlist/ queue for initial response.

I would give this a 0 . I booked and paid for a telephone consultation and no one called me and my partner. You cant get a hold of anyone. DO NOT USE!!! They will cause more stress than what we are already dealing with.

This is written on their website:

"Each message from your counsellor costs £45 "

Are you joking with me? And why this site is in the charity category? This is not charity this is robbery !

Have contacted my local relate as in need of help have rung them sent in forms they sent me a email I replied they still have not got back to me .
We really need the help .
So don't no where to turn now

Ann was a great listener, came across as very knowledgeable, kind and helpful

I've been moved to write this review after seeing so many bad ones on here. I wanted to redress the balance. I often recommend their services to friends. I've had a few experiences with Relate, and they have always been excellent.
1. Sex therapy in Chester. Albeit this was early 2010s. Professional, helpful.
2. Online chat 2016. Helpful, listening, excellent for a brief free service.
3. Couples counseling online. We didn't proceed but the initial consultation was very professional and helpful.

Terrible and false advertisement of their 'chat service'. You cannot chat to anyone, you have to talk to an AI and then are offered to pay for a variety of services. Of which, are not even available. I paid £30, but couldn't get a service so had to chase them to get a refund...which i still haven't got yet.

The therapist was unprofessional.
We had our assessment/counselling session. The therapist from Derby Relate didn’t introduce herself or what Relate can offer. Instead, she said there was nothing she can do and judged us straight within 30 minutes of our chat with her. Contradictory to their bio “It’s the non- judgemental counselling therapist for everyone. It was a horrible session it seems the therapist doesn’t want to help but instead to collect some money for 30 minutes. The attitude was absurd. It’s disappointing we seek for counselling to help us to understand each other and we left the office feeling lost and unheard. I don’t recommend it’s a waste of £20 for assessment and then £45 for counselling which we didn’t have any counselling, we feel robbed.

This is a GARBAGE site has me attached to the wrong business. With bad revies for their business this need to be taken down now

Me and my partner we had a counselling session and at tha period of time our lives was a mess. We have even ended up homeless with a baby and having to.move to a different country. Our councelor was great. He has helped us a lot to go through all this difficulties and change our mindset in lots of aspects. I totally recommend.

Had an impact assessment a month ago and still not heard back..just as well I wasn't suicidal

I booked a half hour one off telephone call with an advisor about an issue in my relationship. It was amazing how much I got out of the session and I came away with real, practical tips I could put to use straight away. Would definitely recommend this service!

if i could give 0 stars i would this is absolutley useless

In the nature of being transparent, I would like to make it clear that I work for the relate appointments team (glad to see no bad reviews for admin 😜). I would like to put my point of view across as some of the reviews are problems which can be easily dealt with.
Firstly, I am sad to hear that some people have had bad experiences with their counsellors, this is not Relates aim in anyway but as the counselling sessions are understandably completely confidential we will not be aware of these issues unless they are brought to our attention,which we would strongly encourage so that we can improve our services going forwards. Relationships between counsellors and their clients are a deeply personal thing and just like in the real world sometimes people do not click with the person they are initially matched with, please inform us if this is the case and we will endeavour to match with a counsellor who you are able to come to a better understanding with as soon as possible. Please note, I am not condoning any behaviour which people have felt is inappropriate in sessions, as mentioned please bring that to Relates attention and this will be dealt with accordingly as it is very important to us that you find our services of benefit!
The service is not free. Unfortunately being part of the admin team we receive numerous calls from other services such as gp’s who perhaps mistakenly have recommended Relate and passed on the information that the service is free. The pricing is, as mentioned in some of the reviews done on a sliding scale of fees which is based on your household income and location. This scale of fees enables Relate to offer a lower pricing to lower income families although unfortunately sometimes this is still out of some people’s price range in the current cost of living situation. We try to obtain funding where we can and do have a list of organisations which are able to provide subsidised sessions for some people who for example have worked in relevant sectors. These do not apply to everyone and we are constantly working to get more organisations on board to make this apply to a wider variety of people. The pricing is fully disclosed when requested and you will always be informed how much sessions are before you book in sessions. However, if household income is not disclosed then we cannot give a price until we have received this information.
The initial assessment is the first stage. This depends on which service you are looking for as to who will be seen. For couples counselling both parties will be seen for this initial appointment. This appointment is as stated an assessment, during this session you would be assessing Relate to see whether you feel happy that as a company we are right for you and you would also be assessed to see whether there are any reasons which would mean that we would be legally obligated to not continue with sessions with you or whether we feel there is a different organisation which would be better suited to your current needs. Some of the reasons which could make Relate not the right organisation for you are personal and therefore would not necessarily be disclosed until this first session. This session would be non refundable if you are unable to progress with Relate as the counsellor would still need to be paid for the session and has still fulfilled the purpose of the session. Sessions are UP to 50 mins so please don’t be disheartened if your session is a little less, it may just be that your counsellor has all the relevant information already. You are welcome to use your time up to 50 mins if you have questions etc. The initial assessment is charged at the same price as your ongoing appointments would be therefore making it easy to calculate what your costs would be going forward.
After your initial assessment, again, if for a couple you will be seen individually for an entire (up to 50 min) session each, we are unable to split these sessions as it is important that the individual has the opportunity to use a whole session and not feel pressured to squeeze everything into a smaller amount of time, it is also recommended that the other partner is not present in the same listening space for these sessions so that there is a complete confidence that the person who is having the session can be open and honest without fear of further affecting a relationship and/or keeping safe. Delicate issues such as domestic violence or suicidal thoughts can be brought out in these sessions although sometimes as well as any safeguarding issues so it is important to use this time individually. Once these sessions have been carried out you would then be seen as a couple, please be aware that at any point you can request more individual sessions.
With regards to male counsellors, we absolutely have them, any preferences can be stated.

I saved up and paid for the email consultation because is was so in need to talk to someone. I’ve heard nothing, have contacted them via their complaints emails, social channels and nothing. How unbelievably awful that they are supposed to help people yet as others have said, seem to be a scam. They have taken money without providing a service.