My name is Gayle Creasey and I am currently offering Discernment Counselling both online and in person in Maidenhead.

What is Discernment Counselling:

Dr Bill Docherty, an American couples therapist, developed this specialist service for couples “who are on the brink” where one or both of you are not sure if you want to save your relationship. This is a particularly difficult and confusing situation and as such demands the right kind of focus and support from a therapist so that a decision can be made.

Having completed Dr Docherty’s training, I am able to provide such a service to couples who are at this point in their relationship.

How does Discernment Counselling work:

The discernment service that I offer works in the following way:

We make an appointment and there is an initial commitment for both of you to attend this first 2-hour session. If a decision hasn’t been reached regarding how to move forward during this or a subsequent session, each person decides separately if they would like one more session (up to a maximum of five).

The goals of each session are clarity and confidence with regards to a decision about the direction of the marriage. This is based on a deeper understanding of what has happened to the marriage and each person’s contributions to the problems.

The outcomes for the session(s) are framed in terms of three paths:

1. stay married as is
2. move towards divorce
3. or decide to do full-on couples therapy for six months to see if the marriage can be put into a good place, with a clear agenda for personal change and with divorce off the table during this time.

Each session begins and ends with a brief period with both of you working with me together and then the rest of the session I work with each of you separately. During this individual time, I support you to go through a process of exploring how you feel and think about your experiences of the relationship. This process will support each of you to decide whether it is possible to consider having one last try to heal and restore the relationship.

Discernment counselling is very short-term work which can be done once or sometimes twice a week, according to the severity of the couple’s crisis and circumstances. This phase of therapy comes to an end when a decision emerges. At this point I can either support you as a couple to help you create a new, more healthy relationship or support you onto planning your lives living separately.

Everything discussed is strictly confidential and handled with warmth, care and sensitivity.

I offer daytime and evening sessions Mondays to Friday between 8am- 8pm.

Contacting Me

You are welcome to call me on 0794 1279177 to have a chat and ‘get a feel for me’.  I can tell you more about how I work and practical things like my availability and cost. You can then decide if you and your partner would like to book an initial session.

Or click here if you would prefer to contact me by email

“Discernment counselling is a protocol which protects the couple from drifting into half-hearted couples therapy, a premature divorce or a divorce that leaves one partner baffled on what exactly happened. Divorce is not a failure in Discernment Counselling. Not learning anything that can help in a future marriage is a failure.”

Dr Bill Docherty

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