Transom Counselling & Psychotherapy · Lancaster Ask about a free call

The practice

Three rooms above a lane named after a meeting house.

Transom is four therapists at number 6, Meeting House Lane. The lane takes its name from the Friends Meeting House at the far end, built in 1708 and Lancaster's second-oldest place of worship. We are not Quakers. We did borrow the idea that plainness is a form of respect.

A painted front door with a glazed panel above it, plants on either side of the step
The transom light over the door at number 6. The practice is named after it.

Since 2014

Started by someone who left the waiting list

Ruth Ellwood spent five years in NHS Talking Therapies across Morecambe Bay. The clinical work was good. What she could not make work was the shape of it: six sessions, a waiting list behind you, and a service specification that decided how long anybody got.

Transom opened in 2014 with one room and one therapist. Daniel joined in 2018, Dr Pryce in 2022, Marek in 2023. There are three rooms now and about ninety hours of clinical work a week between four people. There is deliberately no fifth therapist and no reception desk; when you write, the person who replies is the person you would sit with.

The six concession places are the only part of this that is not commercial, and they are the reason the daytime hours are worth keeping. They are not a marketing line — they are means-tested, they have no time limit, and when they are full we say so.

What this practice will not do

Written down in 2014 and unchanged since.

  • Take a client we are not the right place for Even when the diary is thin.
  • Ask a current client for a testimonial The power difference makes consent unreliable. The one quote on this site was given after the work ended.
  • Claim to treat or cure a diagnosed condition Advertising rules forbid it without robust evidence, and honesty forbids it anyway.
  • Chase a person who stops coming One message to say the door is open. Then nothing.
  • Write a court report Not for work that started here as therapy.

Who we are, and how to check

Four therapists, four numbers you can look up

Most therapy websites show you a logo. A logo can be pasted into any footer by anyone. What you can actually check is a membership number against a public register, so that is what is printed here — at the same size as the name.

One of these four is on a statutory register and three are not, and the difference matters enough that we mark it. Only counselling psychologist is a title protected by law.

Portrait of Ruth Ellwood

Ruth Ellwood

Founder · Integrative counsellor and psychotherapist

Register BACP 372481 PSA-accredited register
Standing MBACP (Accred) — 450+ supervised hours beyond qualification
Supervision 2 hours a month, BACP-accredited supervisor
Practising Practising since 2009. NHS Talking Therapies at Morecambe Bay 2009–2014, then here.
Works with Anxiety and panic · bereavement · work, burnout and identity · adjustment to diagnosis
Check it Search 372481 at bacp.co.uk/therapists
Portrait of Daniel Rowntree

Daniel Rowntree

Psychotherapist · Psychodynamic

Register UKCP 2011458 PSA-accredited register
Standing UKCP-registered — four-year training, personal therapy required throughout
Supervision 1.5 hours a fortnight, UKCP-registered supervisor
Practising Trained at the Northern Guild, qualified 2016. Here since 2018.
Works with Long-standing patterns in relating · endings and separation · trauma · dreams
Check it Search 2011458 at ukcp.org.uk/find-a-therapist
Portrait of Dr Anwen Pryce

Dr Anwen Pryce

Counselling Psychologist · CBT, schema and CAT

Register HCPC PYL04812 Statutory register — protected title
Standing "Counselling psychologist" is protected by law. Using it without HCPC registration is a criminal offence.
Supervision Monthly, plus quarterly peer group
Practising DPsych 2018. Eight years in an NHS complex-needs service before joining in 2022.
Works with OCD · panic · health anxiety · trauma-focused work · assessment where the picture is unclear
Check it Search PYL04812 at hcpc-uk.org/check-the-register
Portrait of Marek Sadowski

Marek Sadowski

Counsellor · Person-centred

Register NCPS NCS19-04471 PSA-accredited register
Standing MNCPS (Accred). Works in English and Polish.
Supervision 2 hours a month, plus the concession caseload reviewed quarterly
Practising Qualified 2019. Leads the six concession places.
Works with Low mood · self-esteem · relationship difficulty · migration, family and belonging
Check it Search NCS19-04471 at ncps.com/find-a-therapist

The practice, not the person

Four things that sit with the partnership rather than with an individual therapist, all of them checkable.

Data protection
ICO ZB417702

We process special-category health data, so the fee is payable and the entry is public. Search the number on ico.org.uk.

Insurance
Howden HP-4419-27

Professional indemnity and public liability, renewed annually. A condition of registration on all four registers above.

Complaints
Two routes, always

To Ruth first. If that does not settle it, to the register direct — you do not need our permission and we will give you the link.

Records
Kept seven years

Brief session notes, held encrypted, destroyed after seven years. You can ask to read yours at any point.

A single armchair beside a window, the room otherwise empty
Room two, late afternoon. The chairs are set at about a hundred and twenty degrees — turned toward each other, not facing, because a face-on chair is harder to sit in than people expect.

The hours that actually exist

Why the evening slots are the hard ones

Almost everybody who pays for their own therapy has a job, which means the sellable hours are 07:30–09:30 and 16:00–20:00 on weekdays, plus Saturday morning. A practice is full when its six o'clocks have gone, whatever its total capacity says.

So: a daytime slot is usually two to four days away and an evening one is ten to fourteen. If your hours are flexible, say so when you write — it is the single thing that most changes how quickly you are seen, and it is also why the concession places sit in the daytime.

Monday to Thursday07:30 – 20:00
Friday07:30 – 17:00
Saturday09:00 – 13:00
Sunday and bank holidaysClosed
Planned breaksTwo a year, dated four weeks ahead

Training and supervision

The unglamorous machinery that keeps this safe

Supervision, monthly, without exception

A minimum of an hour and a half a month is the standard for an accredited BACP member, proportionate to caseload. Everyone here does more. It is the mechanism by which a second qualified person sees your therapist's work — and in a trade with no statutory regulator it is most of what stands between a client and an unchecked practitioner.

CPD, audited

Thirty hours a year each, logged, and liable to be audited by the register at random. Ruth's audit was in 2024 and Marek's in 2025. If you ask what the hours were spent on, we will tell you.

Our own therapy

Two of the four are in personal therapy now; it was compulsory throughout Daniel's four-year UKCP training and is not compulsory for anyone afterwards. We mention it because clients ask, and because the answer to "have you ever done this yourself" should not be a deflection.

If you need help tonight

We are a weekly appointment, not an emergency service. Email here is read twice a working day and not at all at night, at weekends or during our breaks. If waiting until then is not safe, use one of these instead — all four are free and all four are answered.

  • NHS 111, then option 2
    24/7 mental health crisis line, live nationally since 2024    111
  • Samaritans
    Free, 24 hours, every day of the year     116 123
  • Shout
    Text if you cannot speak     85258
  • Ambulance or A&E
    If your life or someone else's is at risk     999

Starting

You do not have to ring anybody

Most people write first. Two lines is enough — what is going on, and which hours you could actually come. You will get a reply from a named therapist, not a reception desk.

Write to us Or ring 01524 840 118

Replies within two working days. The free 20-minute call usually happens within three.