What is Counselling?
Counselling offers insight into difficulties that may have arisen from the past and it recognises how these difficulties may still affect you in the here and now.
The main focus of counselling is helping you to understand your processes and explore your issue, your feelings and emotions.
Helping you to change your negative thoughts and behaviours into more positive ones, bringing you more awareness, clarity and focus to a healthy way forward.
The way I work allows you to feel both accepted and heard and is a wonderful way to reconnect with yourself, to understand your feelings and express your deepest worries in a confidential safe setting.
Some of the main benefits you can expect are the opportunity to:
Express yourself in a safe, supportive, collaborative space with a trained, non-judgemental counsellor
Identify, sort-out and clarify your problems, understand what your feelings mean, giving you a deepened awareness of your past & present and presenting you with an alternative future
Identify non-helpful patterns
Learn, where appropriate, more helpful coping skills and strategies
Identify and achieve goals that are important to you
Why Might I Need Counselling?
A lot of people carry deep hurts and unhealthy emotions from the past that can have a hugely detrimental affect on our current day behaviour, our relationships and our life in general. These hurts could include traumas, bereavement, loss, the breakdown of a relationship, abuse etc. These hurts could go back as far as childhood. But whenever and however the hurt happened, the result is often the same - unhealthy coping strategies as a way of dealing with our unmet emotional needs. More often than not, these defence mechanisms or coping strategies have kept you in the same repetitive cycle, maybe even for years.
You might find you:
Have an issue from the past which is interfering and impacting on your present day life
Have something which has been troubling you for a long period of time which you can’t solve by yourself
Are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed
Are finding it hard to talk to friends or relatives about your issues and they just don’t get you
Are aware that your relationships and work are being affected but don’t know what to do about it, or how to change things.
During counselling I help you explore and identify your needs, your boundaries and where appropriate, give you more helpful coping skills. Think of this as a set of tools to help understand yourself, your feelings and needs, which in turn sheds light on why you do the things you do – even if they are self-destructive. In short, I help you make sense and understand your behaviour and then give you a healthier way of living. In a way, counselling offers you a way back to you – by helping you recognise and accept your own internal worth.
Sadly, when we don’t acknowledge our own internal worth, nor understand our inner feelings or needs then we tend to come from a place of overwhelm or confusion. We are that person who is intent on pleasing everyone else but ourselves. Just carrying the weight of this baggage around within us is hugely unhealthy and stressful to our being. Often it will impact on your relationships, your health, and career. It is at this crisis point, the recognition that the way you are living is counter-productive to a healthy, happy meaningful life, that many people turn to counselling for help.
Why Do I Need To Talk To Someone?
If you've ever tried to solve a really complicated puzzle then you'll know it's far quicker and easier to do it with the help of someone else. A counsellor is not just a friend down the end of the telephone or a helpful relative who means well but might say the wrong thing, it is a highly trained profession which is strictly regulated and in strict confidence in order to maintain the quality of our service.
It can be hard to accept we need help. It's perfectly normal to feel uncertain too. First and foremost, admitting to seeing a counsellor doesn't necessarily mean you're a failure for not coping. In fact, asking for help is one of the bravest decisions we can make as a human being. The good news is from experience from having counselling myself and now being a counsellor, taking the decision to have counselling is life-changing. But it must be a matter of personal choice.
It might help to look at some of the benefits involved in counselling:
Counselling can help you feel less alone. Living alone with a problem can be hugely stressful and creates a large amount of suffering.
A counsellor is skilled not just at listening – but hearing the patterns behind your words. They can help you process difficult thoughts and feelings, show you a fresh perspective and help you find a way forward.
Counselling helps you find a clearer understanding of yourself and what you want and need.
Counselling is safe and non-judgemental and allows you to communicate to a deep level of honesty.
Counselling helps improve the quality of your life and your relationships.
If you're still a bit unsure whether counselling will work for you, or what it entails, the best thing to do is book a free no-obligation consultation with me (usually 15-20 mins long) so you can found out how counselling works and if I can help in your particular situation.
Contact me now on 01622-230367
All sessions take place in the privacy and sanctuary of my beautiful, private wood cabin in my secluded garden.
The Therapy Cabin is private, airy and designed to make you feel both comfortable and beautifully relaxed. It’s the perfect place to escape from your everyday life and find the peace and relaxation you need.
There is both off-street parking and air-conditioning.
Got Any Questions?
It's natural to have questions before deciding on counselling, so please see this page of FAQ's. If your question is not answered here, then please feel free to contact me as I am more than happy to talk more about how it can help you.
Please feel free contact me to today for your free, no obligation consultation to find out how counselling can change your life. I am a compassionate and caring practitioner who treats everyone who comes to me in the utmost confidence and I look forward to hearing from you.