About Jo
Jo Read is a counsellor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression and relationship strain. She supports those dealing with grief, trauma, addictions and issues around identity, self-esteem and intimacy. Jo also works with concerns such as eating and body image, ADHD, career pressures and coping with life changes.
Jo trained in therapeutic counselling and holds membership of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists, BACP. She has eight years of practice as a counsellor and over twenty years working with young people and adults in youth work, education, mental health and social care.
Background and approach
This background shapes a practical, grounded way of working. Her style is warm and person-centred. Sessions focus on listening, asking open questions and reflecting back what is heard.
This helps people name feelings, see patterns and decide what matters most to them. Jo draws on somatic work alongside client-centred and emotionally-focused ways of working. She combines talking with attention to bodily experience and mindfulness to help people feel more settled in themselves.
The approach is steady and collaborative, with the client setting the agenda. First meetings are used to agree aims and a counselling contract, and to decide if working together feels right. Jo keeps supervision and personal therapy as part of her practice to maintain professional care and clear boundaries.
How Jo’s approaches transfer to online sessions
Somatic-informed work pays attention to how feelings show up in the body. In online sessions this can mean noticing breath, posture and physical sensations while talking, then using gentle practices to regulate the nervous system. This approach can help with anxiety, trauma responses and chronic stress.Client-centred counselling focuses on empathetic listening and creating space for people to speak their truth. Online sessions retain this emphasis by using reflective listening and open questions so the client leads the pace and focus. Emotionally-Focused Therapy, or EFT, concentrates on identifying and working with core emotions to change unhelpful patterns. When used online it helps people connect more clearly with what they feel and why it matters in relationships and self-understanding.
Finding the right combination of approaches is part of the work. Jo will talk with each person about their goals, needs and preferences and together decide which methods to try. That collaborative planning is revisited as therapy progresses to make sure it still fits.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face contact, phone sessions remove the need for video, and live chat or text messaging give shorter, more frequent check-ins. These options make it easier to fit counselling around work, caring commitments or fluctuating energy levels, while keeping the focus on steady progress.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English