I see people in Johannesburg, and I see people across the UK, Ireland and Europe — often on the same afternoon. The questions I am asked before a first session are almost always practical rather than clinical: does counselling over video actually work, what happens when the internet fails, and how on earth do we find an hour that suits both of us.

Fair questions, all of them. Here are straight answers, including the parts that are genuinely a limitation rather than an inconvenience.

Does online counselling actually work?

For most people, yes. I was sceptical once and I am no longer. Counselling depends on the relationship between two people and on being properly heard, and both travel down a video call better than anyone expected. What changes is smaller than you think: slightly less of the body, slightly more of the face.

There are real advantages, too. You are in your own home, which for difficult material is often steadying rather than exposing. There is no waiting room, no traffic, no drive home with a red face. And a counsellor's location becomes almost irrelevant — you can choose someone for their experience rather than their postcode.

When is in-person better? If you are in acute crisis or actively at risk, you need care physically near you. If your home offers no privacy at all and no workaround exists, that is a genuine obstacle. Some people with severe dissociation do steadier work in a room, at least at first. And some simply know they need to be in the same space as another human being — a preference worth respecting, not arguing with. If you're in Johannesburg, in person in Fairmount remains an option.

The time-zone maths, in plain numbers

South Africa runs on SAST, which is UTC+2 all year round — we don't change the clocks. So the gap between us moves only when your country changes its clocks, and it is never large.

  • UK and Ireland. One hour behind me in your summer, two hours behind in your winter. A 7pm London session is 8pm in Johannesburg from late March to late October, and 9pm for the rest of the year. A 1pm Dublin session is 2pm or 3pm my side.
  • Most of Europe. The same time as me in your summer, one hour behind in winter. A 6pm Amsterdam or Berlin session is 6pm here in July and 7pm here in January.
  • Within South Africa. No arithmetic at all.

So evening appointments work well from Europe, the UK and Ireland, and mornings before work are straightforward too. We fix your slot in your local time and I keep track of the conversion — the clock change is my job to remember, not yours, and I'll flag it a week ahead so nobody is caught at the wrong hour.

What happens if the connection drops?

It happens — load-shedding, weather, a router having a moment. We agree the plan in the first session so it is never a small emergency: if the video fails we reconnect once, and if that doesn't work within a couple of minutes I phone you and we continue by voice. The session still counts and you are not charged twice for a bad line. Sound matters far more than picture in this work.

Privacy at home, and what you actually need

The kit list is short: a device with a camera, a reasonable connection, and headphones. Headphones are the single biggest improvement most people can make — they keep my voice from carrying into the next room, and they help you feel properly met.

Beyond that, what you need is a door that closes and an hour that belongs to you. A bedroom, a study, a parked car outside your own house — I have met people in all of them. If you share a home with people you would rather not be overheard by, tell me and we will work around it: a session timed for when the house is empty, or the phone rather than video. Ten quiet minutes either side of the hour help too.

Paying across borders

Simpler than people expect. Payment is by bank transfer, in pounds, euros or rands — whichever is easiest from your side — and international transfers are welcome. There is no subscription, no app, and no card kept on file. From the UK, Ireland or Europe, individual sessions are £40 / €45. Within South Africa they are R750, with a sliding scale available, and sessions with a social worker registered with the SACSSP in South Africa can often be claimed back from medical aid, depending on your plan. I don't take on clients based in the United States.

If you are outside South Africa and mainly want to know what working with me looks like from your side, my pages on online counselling for the UK and on finding an English-speaking counsellor abroad cover it in more detail.

The honest limit: crisis support has to be local

This is the part I want to state clearly rather than bury. Counselling is not an emergency service, and a counsellor two thousand miles away cannot reach you quickly. If you are in crisis in South Africa, call SADAG on 0800 567 567. Elsewhere, please contact your local emergency services. If you live with ongoing risk, you need a local practitioner, a local doctor, or both — and I will say so plainly rather than take on work that should sit closer to home.

For everything else — grief, anxiety, trauma, a marriage under strain, the weight of caring for someone — distance is not much of an obstacle at all. My online counselling page explains how sessions run week to week.