Relate Opiniões 

We had an awful experience similar to other reviews.

We dealt with the London Bridge office.

We were charged £70 for an initial consultation with a counsellor who kept repeating a potted history of Relate being founded in the 1930’s. It felt like he was trying to fill time.

The lady that took our second session had not read the notes her colleague had made during our initial consultation and therefore knew nothing about us. This also made the first session a complete waste of time and money.

On the third session we turned up (for the Zoom link as arranged) but the counsellor didn’t.

We cancelled immediately and got all our money back. Not that they offered. We had to press the issue.

And as others have said they probably made our situation worse as they put us under more stress at a difficult time.

Another disappointing element of the whole process was there pricing policy. They try and charge you more depending on how much you earn. They stress they are a charity and this helps subsidise lower earners needing therapy. But when you press them on it the higher fees are actually going to cover, “high rents we have to pay on our London Bridge property”, even though they would have all been working at home during lockdown.

I have a few thoughts, jokers, unprofessional, entitled, arrogant, overpaid, time wasters.

Don’t bother with this outdated organisation. Find a decent, local, independent therapist.

Do NOT pay for this service. Absolute waste of time and money. I am disgusted that a “counselling” service could be so poor. They actually made our family issues worse by their poor service- it was very difficult to get an initial appointment, and we paid £63 for the “honour” of being assessed by someone who turned up late and left early. They told us we would have to wait over two months for a follow up appointment and would have to “get in line”. Then never called us for the follow up appointment. When trying to contact them about a) not sending the right pre-interview information b) not logging on at the time of the appointment and c) not providing a follow up appointment, we had absolutely no response via heir website, email or telephone. Don’t waste your money, pay for a proper counsellor not this marketing fad.

Very poor customer relationship service, which is ironic really.

We've done a few couples sessions, but we're cancelling because of how frustrating it is to communicate with relate.

Second session, were waiting on a confirmation email or or link to remote session. Turns out link was same as original session and was in an email from two weeks ago - really small, at the bottom, poorly worded. No reminder, no contact at all. We were sitting with the laptop waiting to log on. They wanted to charge us for the session.

How easy is it these days to send an email reminder - an automated text message with a zoom link?

Next we needed to cancel a session as we're out. Could not get through to main helpline for over 24hrs, which took us into the period where they want to charge us again for a session we can't attend, even though it's their fault I cannot tell them before the 48hr notice period.

The phoneline was telling me the office was closed, then stating the opening hours, which I was phoning within. Turns out there are only two people answering a national helpline.

I don't want to comment on the sessions themselves, because they were probably ok, although I don't feel like we gained a lot from them.

The organisation of relate and their customer services is attrocious. Virtually non existent. You cannot communicate with your councillor, you cannot email, the online chat is just a bot directing you to webpages.

You are paying a premium for this service as a layer on top of the sessions which should help and not hinder. It has driven me up the wall.

Do yourselves a favour and find a decent local, independent therapist.

Relate are living solely off being the best known national service. Not by being the best service. A good marketing job. A terrible customer experience.

Myself and my wife used Relate London North West & Hertfordshire. Our counsellor was Shaheen.
We decided to use Relate as we had quite a few problems we were struggling to work through and were arguing on a near-daily basis.
The service was well worth it. After 10 counselling sessions our communication and understanding of our own, and each others needs, improved massively.
I would recommend Relate to any couples in need of relationship counselling.
I am so glad we used Relate. It was worth the money.

Advised by our GP to use relate for marriage issues.
Had to leave a message for them to get back to us to make an appointment. 2mths later still waiting!
Not professional in my opinion

paid for my assessment and that was all!! NO call to follow up- no email to follow up! Also, why you charge your potential patients for an admin appointment to assess??? £68 paid and not heard back... god knows who I talked to anyway!! It could've been another lockdown scam.. nice one RELATE

If you are looking for Marriage Guidance then from my experience Relate are more likely to damage what is left of your marriage, rather than improve the situation. Again in my opinion, Relate's method of sometimes councilling married couples individually simply doesn't work. You are better off looking elsewhere, not worth 1 star.

Sorry about my written english is not so good.

My experience with Relate (Richmond,London, from Kendal-not sure if this's right spelling of her name).
We have stopped seeing her few days before Christmas. Am sorry that i didn't write this review earlier...
Myself and my boyfriend we've been is relationship for over a year...Than decided it's probably the best to see a counsellor, so they can help us walk trough a rough patch....
We have seen Kandal for a few sessions... one of the things i always wandered. How does she remembers issues,postivity's etc when her clients walk into her room straight after us and vice versa,
Nor does she carries any Notes with her!
She doesn't remember it!
This is how i know.
We have confronted my ex about some serious issues in relationship ie he likes to control me...
he completely denied everything. and said he wants to break the relationship. i couldn't really say much at all as i felt broken...
as such i hoped Kendal will be able to say few words in my support...
She said that relationship with me has been nourishing. He said his life has been nourishing before he has met me.
Kendal than went on to say that care is important in relationship. And she went on repeating care for each other. Care. Care
while we were living the room. i wandered why did she sounded generic just like a robot. So general.
She only said Nourishing in my support.
The only personal trait support(which ex has mentioned a few times)-nourishing!
However,reading the above reviews i think i know understand why she was so general and just one line of support in my favour. Cause that's how they are trained! Pathetic!
of course that didn't work out at all. She didn't remember so many other things when he was praising me for so many different reasons and calling me his ideal woman etc etc... none of it
Even my ex said later on " she could have done better"
Extremely poor handling of situation as if its your first time...Terrible.
in my opinion and considering above reviews Avoid Relate All Together and go privately.
Good luck to you and may you have a wonderful relationship
Anna

Took my money and so far nothing. A bad system where I was charged before anything happened. No link to try and resume the process. Nothing. When I was in the payment process it says 'A therapist has been reserved for you for the next 3 min.' Sounded pretty straight forward. Someone was available, pay and we can start. As soon as I pay 'Everyone is busy, leave email and we'll message you back to resume.' O..kaay? So I do. Get an email back saying go to our site and go to talk to someone. No resume link, nothing. Go to talk. Same payment window pops up first. What a joke. And no email to actually contact them about it. The only email provided is about site issues.

Edit:got a refund. But still shouldn't have been like that. Have a system when therapist has to confirm before they're about to sign on at least. Then the payment comes out.

We decided to give Relate a go as my friend used them and worked well for them.
Unfortunately it has been a waste of time for us.
Similar to Cindy R post we paid £63 for a consultation and after doing the consultation we haven’t heard back from anyone since over a month.
It’s horrific when you are need in councilling and take the difficult action to try and do it, these guys take your money then leave you hanging.

Go elsewhere

Very poor consulting. We arranged an assessment a week ago and we are still waiting for an answer. They dont give any feedback except "sorry, we will come back to you". We paid £70 for the assessment and we dont even have a feedback. They also told us that we wont be able to work with them for term and conditions they never share with us or on their website.

My wife arranged the series of meetings to start the ball rolling to divorce. The process is described as mediation. It turned out to be a long and ivolved audit of my financial potential and assets. I have been the main provider for nearly 20 years. We have 2 teenage girls who will live with their mum. I am 20 years older than my wife and I have an amicable relationship and had made an agreement on how to share the assets. My wife is quite passive and was convinced that having 'mediation' was a prerequisite to appointing solicitors, So I endured. Our 'mediator' followed the Relate audit plan to the letter it was hard work, and stressful and at the same time in my mind I knew it was pointless. There was a complete lack of purpose and absolutely no warmth dealing with our (female) Relate person. They promote themselves as a cheaper alternative to Lawyers yet they are not much cheaper and not nearly as useful or competent. The experience made me miserale and angry. My wife and I have now appointed solicitors and we are finally starting to get somewhere. The Relate brand is disguising a web of expensive and amateurish time wasters.

If I could give it zero stars then that would be too high, very unprofessional and no useful advice given whatsoever. In order to give advice then you have to asses each other’s situation and problems. This was not done and then questions and comments were made which demonstrated how little or not at all the situation was understood. In my opinion a written statement of each other’s situation and opinions should have been submitted in writing before any such meeting and then read by the councillor before he or her began any such meeting. We had a female advisor who definitely was biased and that should not happen. She showed no understanding of how relationships should work and her questions were not only wide of the mark but upsetting and inappropriate, but hardly surprising as she had not assessed the situation by asking relevant questions in order to gain an accurate understanding of the situation

A complete waste of time and money and also in my opinion a total rip off at £60 for 50 minutes

Another 1 star rating....
Like most couples, we were desperate to try anything to fix us and that is what they take advantage of.
The councillor (Tim from Suffolk) was pleasant enough, but the service was far from fundamentally professional or beneficial. Yes of course, the subject matter cannot be easily measured, but the process basically was him clearly running through a check box list with very little personal involvement.
Alarm bells started ringing when we said we could maybe combine the 2 individual session to which he immediately replied that it will still cost us £120. Not take 2 sessions, but £120 Money first, your welfare is second.
The concluding session after his assessment was of no use at all. He mentioned no details of what was troubling us, but simply rolled out what I'm sure he says to everyone, be kind to each other and have you tried a date night once a week? Pathetic.
Although he charged £60 for 50mins, not one of our sessions lasted that long. Did he offer to reduce ther payment? What do you think.
I would seriously think twice about using Relate and especially this charlatan. At best, the process will leave you no better off and will cost you £240 minimum for the privilege. At worst, it will be of harm to your relationship.
AVOID

Oh dear. Very poor. Relate Maidenhead is housed in a council building which is sterile to put it mildly.
The consultation rooms are even worse - at our induction session we sat in the reception area listening to a couple have a massive row from within a consulting room, presumably with a therapist in there too. No sound proofing. All very public. Pretty amateur and not a little shocking.
Now to our therapist - a geordie. Not very bright and with some very old and rigid stereotypes. It reminded me of something from the 1970s.
People had said to us that Relate was a bit hit and miss. This was a spectacular miss as far as we were concerned.
Needless to say we didn’t go back....

Bear in mind Relate is neither free nor inexpensive. I would avoid and look elsewhere.

I eventually arranged an interview and series of counselling with Relate Worcester, after trying to make an appointment more locally and been left waiting for months, just being told when I rang that there were no appointments, not that I could have booked at Worcester.

I totally agree with the other persons review here that the womans points seem to be taken on trust while the male is left out of things.

I assumed that Relate, being well known, were professional that was a mistake.

I was first to be interviewed then at the next appointment myself and wife together, The woman counsellor said that she would arrange a series of interviews where she would interview my wife, and myself separately then come together for the final few counselling sessions - This did NOT happen.

The original lady counsellor saw my wife, then when my next appointment came I saw a completely new woman counsellor, who had not seen me or my wife before.
All my counseling continued to be by this woman, while my wife's were conducted by the original counsellor
We never had another interview with my wife and I together as had been planned.

For my part I would say that the counselling sessions were pointless, at everyone the woman cousellor asked the same questions at each session and offered little advice, and that was simplistic in the extreme.

I obviously had no idea what my wife had said or what advice was given, but as my wife started using terms like narcissistic after her sessions I gathered my character had been assasinated on the basis of a half hour interview? I assure you while I have some traits that is certainly not one of them. (and do remember it was me not my wife who suggested and arranged these sessions)

Since our counselling our relationship has taken a definite dive for the worse, and having tried for months now I am writing this on the eve of splitting up as I cannot put up with the constantly quotes or maybe misquotes of what "her" counsellor said, and the selfishness it seems to have triggered.

I sum up to say I found Relate to be unprofessional and uninspiring, and if you are male I would suggest you go elsewhere.

My wife and I had problems in our marriage for many years and dealing with a Mother In Law that stuck her nose in everything, and that was not easy for me to deal with.

After one argument about her and other things she threw me out by tex message. which I thought was uncalled for, but I accept it and move to live with my mother.

We decided to go for Marriage Counselling with *** Relate in Carmarthen, South Wales *** and that was one of the biggest mistake I personally ever made.
We met up with an experienced Woman so I thought to talk about our problems and resolve our differences and help get our marriage back on track.
This Woman spoke to my wife for around 35 minutes and Me for around 10 minutes, so I knew that she was taking my wife's side from the start even when she said she personally can do so.

She told us that there was no point carrying on with the marriage and she wanted to see us both separately to discuss permanent separation, There was no effort by this Woman to ask us if we could talk about thing and how we could change our marriage for the better.

We are now permanently separated, and believe that having Counseling with Relate has permeability ruined our marriage forever.

Keep Well Away From Relate, This Woman she not be a councillor in my eyes