Jay McCarthy Counselling

19/04/2026

I love spring. Sunshine without the uncomfy temperatures is perfect for me!

17/04/2026

I didn’t holiday at Easter, so I’m a little bit later announcing my scheduled time off this year. But as ever, here are the dates in advance so nothing feels a last minute change of plan or surprise :) One other change is that I am now taking Bank Holidays off. If your session was due to fall on a Bank Holiday, we can book in for a different day that week or Monday the following week - whatever’s best for you.

16/04/2026

Healing isn't always comfortable, but that doesn't mean you're doing it 'wrong' or going backwards.

16/04/2026

25/03/2026

✨ GLIMMERS ✨ a social media buzz word or a genuinely useful tool for mental health? In a world where we are often low on time, energy or both, I have found that stealing 5 minutes of joy has really shifted my mood. There’s lots of things I wish I had time and energy for but don’t… and it’s ok that I feel frustrated and sad about that at times… but there are also things I DO have time and energy for. 5 minutes I could have spent scrolling I now spend knitting. Building a mini. Weeding the garden. Reading a page of a book. I don’t need big chunks of time to do things that make my day more fulfilling. So for me, glimmers are a must.

03/03/2026

I learned so much on this course by Harriet Frew, a professional and educator with lived experience of disordered eating.

From deepening my understanding of the relationship between neurodivergence and EDs to learning practical ways to support someone who is struggling with their relationship with food and their body, I feel even more equipped to be of use and really ‘get it’.

28/01/2026

I had a brilliant time going back to the University of Nottingham to facilitate a workshop on Counselling Trans Clients for the MA Counselling students. We had some really brave and honest discussions about being a therapist - and a human - in the current world we live in. We don’t have all the answers but we have a whole heartful of courage and compassion to meet people where they’re at and hold space for the chaos.

17/12/2025

I know… it’s a bit early for New Year posts… but I have a rare couple of spaces for new clients opened up, and this message has been weight on my heart for a couple of weeks, so it feels as good a time as any to share!

If you know something needs to change in the New Year, and are open to the idea that maybe the thing we need to work on isn’t YOU but how you talk to yourself, then why not get in touch.

Free no obligation 15-min intro session to get a feel for things. Weekly or fortnightly therapy available, via Instant Messaging or voice/video calls.

20/11/2025

It’s nearly December, so it feels right to let you know what to expect regarding sessions around Christmas and New Year. As always, I’m taking as little time off as possible, to try not to disrupt my routine or your routine too much.

I will be available Christmas Eve for morning sessions. Christmas Day and Boxing Day I won’t be holding sessions. I will be available on NYE in the morning/midday, and on New Year’s Day in the afternoon.

I am (as you’ll probably have already gathered!) flexible about our sessions around Christmas. We can keep going as close to our usual scheduling as possible, or you can take a gap in sessions while things get all busy and jumbled. Whatever helps you most.

09/10/2025

I was very humbled to receive this testimonial the other day. As a therapist who has been in therapy, I know how transformative the journey can be. To be able to be a part of that for the brilliant humans I get to meet in my clients makes this hands down the best way I could be spending my days.

15/09/2025

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to offer 30-minute sessions. There are many reasons you might feel like a 30-minute session is a good fit for you - either for a chapter of our work together or throughout.

Perhaps it’s time constraints or money constraints. Perhaps it’s energy/fatigue management. Perhaps you struggle to fill an hour session for one of a billion possible reasons… and that’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with you, and therapy is the last space that should make you feel like there is.

It’s ok to need to engage in a different way, and it’s on me to keep on finding new ways to hold space that include more people, work for more people, feel more right, more comfortable, more safe and accessible.

There are some ways of holding space that I can’t offer, because I’m a human too with my own strengths and struggles. But 30-min sessions? That I absolutely can do! So, if that’s what you think you’d like, let’s do it!

(Boring contracting talk: session length is mutually agreed when booking in a session. The fee that is due is the fee for the session booked - so if we booked for an hour, you’ll need to pay for an hour no matter how long you attend for. But we can totally discuss changing the length of our next booking if you’re not finding you use a full hour! 30-min sessions cost exactly half of hour-long sessions cos anything else doesn’t make sense to me!)

17/06/2025

Last month I attended training on working with grief by the wonderful Cruse Bereavement. It felt so helpful in developing my understanding of the grieving process and how best to be alongside someone on that journey.

One of my main takeaways (a thought of my own rather than something we were taught) was realising how autistic people are dealing with grief DAILY. We were given a working definition of grief as “dealing with a change or ending”. The way changes impact us autistic folk made so much more sense to me with this deeper understanding of what grief looks and feels like.

I will be bringing this deeper knowledge of how to really be of use to someone dealing with grief to all my clients who are experiencing changes and endings… which is everyone, really, isn’t it?