COUNSELLING / PSYCHOTHERAPY

Counselling & psychotherapy are becoming more popular and normalised. Thankfully that old fashioned stiff upper lip attitude has been replaced with understanding, empathy and support. It can be useful in times of crisis to Keep Calm and Carry On above the surface, but why grit your teeth to emotional torment if it can be eased?  

It is now commonly accepted that ignoring underlying issues and dealing with problems at a superficial level does not start the real healing process and can even allow concerns to fester. We are becoming increasingly aware that one needs a holistic view since mind and body are integrally interconnected.  MENTAL HEALTH is as important and essential as PHYSICAL HEALTH. 

People owe it to themselves to seek help and support and not to suffer, often alone with issues weighing down or disrupting their lives. It is far healthier to look at problems and stressors and work towards positive solutions and at times acceptance leading hopefully to a happier, more successful and balanced life.

Visiting a therapist shows self-awareness, a positive step for change and taking responsibility to improve oneself.  This can be very empowering and is a move towards regaining some control in one’s life.  All therapy is really self-therapy and it does require some work and commitment to one’s own healing.  Therapy can be relaxing, revealing, challenging, enlightening and even exciting, depending on one’s issues and the stage of the process.

The therapist is an experienced guide and support through the client’s process. Therapy moves at the client’s own pace and what one is comfortable with.  Sometimes a person simply needs the relief of sharing their experiences and feelings in a non-judgmental, confidential, caring and safe haven of support.

There are a variety of styles of therapy these days.  Every client has individual needs and responds in a unique way to changing negative and self-destructive behaviours, thought patterns and feelings. Generally early psycho analysis concentrated on revealing past memories and experiences that are held within the unconscious, working through past trauma and helping the client to change through such illuminations; that light-bulb moment.

Modern therapy grew to concentrate on either changing behavioural, feeling or thought processes, which in turn can improve unconscious habitual patterns, and tends to work more quickly, without having to understand Why one developed such negative or self-destructive habits.

I work from the point of view of being in the present and moving forward towards a client’s goals in the most effective way and yet looking back where necessary.  This way one does not get stuck in months of self-analysis with perhaps slow progress.  Yet it also does not dismiss past traumas and useful memories whilst making immediate and forward changes. 

I like to be flexible, incorporating elements of Transactional Analysis, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, NLP, integrative, humanistic, client centred, psychodynamic, holistic, Solution Focused Therapy, behavioural, analytical, eclectic, couple therapy, hypnotherapy and life coaching where helpful.