COUNSELLING

How can counselling benefit an individual?

Counselling is primarily a talking therapy that allows you to discuss your problems in confidence, with a trained professional, in a peaceful and safe place. It is impartial, non-judgemental where my focus is listening to you, as I believe your concerns are real and important. Sometimes unlike a friend or family member, they may want to take sides, or have a hidden agenda. Therefore, speaking to a counsellor may be easier to talk freely, as my job is to make you feel valued, respected and listened to.

My service, may help you cope with many aspects of mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety or an eating disorder. It may also help with a physical health condition, such as infertility, long-term illness or a painful difficult life event, such as bereavement, a relationship breakdown or work-related stress. Counselling can help people navigate those difficult life situations, such as death of a loved one, divorce, natural disasters, school stress/phobia, loss of a job, etc. It provides you with the tools and insight to manage mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.

Why would you choose to speak to a counsellor?

My aim would be to help you reflect and make sense of difficult life events and support you to find a way to move forward. The benefits of talking to me, is that I am neutral, outside of your immediate situation, I will facilitate and support you to see your situation from a different perspective. Ultimately the aim is to help you find a way forward, to grow and self-actualise.

The benefits and relief from being set free from depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions will increase your confidence and improve your ability to be able to make better decisions for yourself. I will support to equip you with how to better manage stress effectively, to improve problem-solving skills and manage conflict resolution.

Counselling supports the following:

FACILITATING BEHAVIOUR CHANGE.
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS.
FACILITATE CLIENT'S POTENTIAL.
PROMOTING DECISION MAKING.
ENHANCE POTENTIAL AND ENRICH SELF.
SETTING OWN GOALS.

The following are some of the types of counselling I practise:

INTEGRATIVE COUNSELLING

This focuses on the whole person, a holistic approach, that is taking into account your mental health, physical and emotional needs. It is tailored to meet your individual needs where I will use tools and techniques from different modalities. My aim is to build a trusting and non-judgemental relationship that will help you develop self-awareness. I will support you to gain insight and understand what causes your concerns, what your triggers are for your behaviours. Where eventually you will be able to have the confidence to set your own goals and learn to develop new behaviours, be able to experience improvement and satisfaction with your life.

PERSON-CENTRED THERAPY

This particular therapy is based on the view that each individual person has the potential and desire for personal growth and change, providing they have the right conditions. My aim is not to be seen as being the expert and directing the therapy, I will offer unconditional positive regard (UPR), empathy and congruence, supporting you to understand and face any negative feelings, to help you change and develop at your own pace.

HUMANISTIC THERAPY

This therapy is an umbrella term that covers several types of therapy, including person-centred therapy, Gestalt, existential therapy, solution-focused therapy and transactional analysis. The therapy I offer is client-led, I will work with you to come to terms with your issues, concerns etc that you want to explore. I will help you to think about your feelings and take responsibility for your thoughts and actions. This therapy may be short term or long term, depending on your own individual needs.
The humanistic approach is about free will, self-discovery and achieving your full potential as a human being, rather than concentrating on individual problems or symptoms. It looks at everything that makes you who you are and focuses on you as a unique individual and your relationship with the world around you.
I will provide you with a safe space, which is accepting of you as an individual, for who you are. I am non-judgemental, you will have the autonomy to take the lead with your therapy, to explore and discover “self” You will have the opportunity to discover what drives you and what your abilities are. You will be empowered to find your own solutions, to re-address self-defeating behaviours and patterns of behaviour which are unhelpful for an accepting change in behaviour.
Furthermore, you may have experienced a painful, difficult life event or trauma, which may have blocked your self-belief or self-worth. This may have impacted on your ability to find your own solutions and left you with mixed emotions. The humanistic approach gently helps to unblock and unpick that experience, supports to give you the ability to find solutions and freedom from that emotional turmoil. Therefore, allowing you to rebuild, re focus and being able to make healthy emotional and psychological progress.
You will be able to learn how to find the solutions to your own problems, have the insight to self-actualise and be more self-aware.

PSYCHOANALYSIS

This is based on the work of Sigmund Freud, who believed that psychological problems are rooted in the unconscious mind. Experiences from a person’s past can influence thoughts, emotions and behaviour in later life. I will encourage you to talk about your experiences and use techniques such as free association and dreams to identify repressed feelings or conflicts that are affecting you now. By allowing and bringing these to the front of your mind allows any negative feelings to be dealt with.

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

The approach is derived from psychoanalysis, but focuses on immediate problems therefore helping to provide a quicker solution. My aim is to support you to understand your emotions, those unconscious patterns of behaviour and the impact on your mental wellbeing. To facilitate you to make sense of those early childhood experiences and their effects on your behaviour now. I will support you to get to know yourself better and to enable you to make better decisions for yourself.

THE SOLUTION-FOCUSED THERAPY

This type of therapy is to promote positive change rather than dwelling on the past issues. I will encourage you to focus on your strengths, what you already do well. To support you to set your own goals and facilitate you on how to achieve them.

CBT

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This type of therapy aims to stop negative cycles, by breaking down those barriers that make you feel bad, anxious or scared. The aim is to try to make your concerns or issues more manageable. CBT may help you to change some of those negative thought patterns, where they are unhelpful, and hindering you from being able to carry out your daily tasks, socialise etc. By using a variety of practical strategies and tools, such as journaling, written exercises and other manageable activities, including mindfulness. Furthermore, CBT can help you change your negative thought patterns and improve the way you feel. Therefore, I will support you to examine, explore your thoughts, discover how they affect your feelings and behaviour. Together we will talk through, analyse your issues and problems.

CBT is supported with the expectation that you will commit to some home work between the sessions, this may involve keeping a journal, a diary or completing some worksheets. You may also, be offered some mindful activities.

What can CBT help with?

· Anxiety

· Depression

· Phobias

· PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder)

· Sleep disorders

· Eating disorders

· OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)

· Substance misuse, addictions

· Other mental health issues

This therapy focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings and behaviours; therefore, the idea is that you are supported to develop coping strategies to help break the negative patterns. CBT focuses on current issues, in the present moment rather than the past.

DBT

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a type of talking therapy. It is similar to CBT; however, it is adapted and specially tailored for people who deeply feel emotions, feelings. This therapy, DBT will help you understand and accept those difficult feelings and emotions.

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS THERAPY

This approach is extensive, it applies strands of the CBT, humanistic and psychodynamic therapy. It breaks down the human personality into three states: Parent, adult and child; which aims to support you to explore how you interact with others. In particular, focusing on your beliefs and the way you interpret the world around you, whether it may have shaped patterns of behaviours which may cause you problems. Together we will work to help you identify those concerns and support you to change.