Some questions you may ask are:
What is Counselling and why am I here?
How did I get to this point in my life?
Why do I feel or behave as I do?
How can counselling help?
As your counsellor, I offer you a safe environment where we can work together to find your way through the tangled thoughts and emotions and help you develop a real strength to be true to yourself. I work as a person-centred counsellor, which means putting you at the centre of all our work together. This approach allows me to be true to myself: I have a basic love of humanity and a respect for all people due to my belief that we all have it within ourselves to solve our problems, overcome the issues which are limiting our enjoyment of life, and to recognise and work towards our full potential. I see my job as helping you to find the strength within yourself to manage that process. I don't see myself as an expert who can fix your problems - you are the true expert on yourself. My training and experience has taught me how I can help you, through the "therapeutic relationship" which develops between counsellor and client, to access the positive within you and get the negative into perspective.
I am there for you, and it's surprising how often just that can help you find your way.
What is Counselling and why am I here?
- Counselling is about change, growth, about enabling each individual to find his/her own way in a world that seems sometimes difficult, sometimes stressful, and sometimes cruel.
- Some people come with major problems, some come through the door wondering why they are there but knowing something 'just doesn't feel right' in their lives.
- One person might have a particular goal in mind, another may be unsure what he or she wants.
How did I get to this point in my life?
- Each individual has a different outlook - a different perception of a situation. Sometimes influences or situations in our lives have blurred this perception, and we become confused about what we want and where we are going.
- We may take on other people's belief systems and imagine them to be our own. We end up finding it difficult to make decisions true to our own beliefs which we hold deep inside.
- The situations or influences which have led us to where we are right now might be very subtle over a long period of time and therefore difficult to pinpoint or understand.
- Sometimes blatant control or abuse now or in the past has brought us to the point where we need help to sort out our thoughts or feelings around our situation, our self, and other people.
Why do I feel or behave as I do?
- Dealing with difficult situations or feelings in our lives can lead us to become anxious, depressed, angry, subdued - to name just a few emotions we can experience, or generally unhappy. Our relationships may suffer and also our own health and sense of well-being.
- Sometimes we hide these feelings from the world, and sometimes also from ourselves. Sometimes developing a persona which appears strong and able to cope is a kind of defence mechanism hiding a much more vulnerable and unhappy person inside.
- Sometimes our feelings are right out there - we may become aggressive or violent either verbally or physically, either to self or others, or turn to addictive behaviours involving such things as drink, drugs, excess food, gambling, to name a few.
- We might withdraw from life, feeling that we are worthless - and be somewhere on a continuum from a mild feeling that life is passing us by to a feeling of total despair and a belief that life is not worth living.
How can counselling help?
As your counsellor, I offer you a safe environment where we can work together to find your way through the tangled thoughts and emotions and help you develop a real strength to be true to yourself. I work as a person-centred counsellor, which means putting you at the centre of all our work together. This approach allows me to be true to myself: I have a basic love of humanity and a respect for all people due to my belief that we all have it within ourselves to solve our problems, overcome the issues which are limiting our enjoyment of life, and to recognise and work towards our full potential. I see my job as helping you to find the strength within yourself to manage that process. I don't see myself as an expert who can fix your problems - you are the true expert on yourself. My training and experience has taught me how I can help you, through the "therapeutic relationship" which develops between counsellor and client, to access the positive within you and get the negative into perspective.
I am there for you, and it's surprising how often just that can help you find your way.