How does Counselling Help?
Counselling offers a uniquely safe and supportive space in which you can talk about your deepest feelings with someone unrelated to you in your everyday life. It isn’t always easy to talk to family or friends when you’re feeling lonely, unhappy, or overwhelmed. You may be anxious about burdening others. You may be fearful of being rejected or worried that others will judge you. Sharing your thoughts and feelings with a trained Counsellor can provide relief, enabling you to explore and gain insight into your thoughts, feelings and emotions. I believe that therapy can offer a gentle, supportive environment that can help you to understand your life history in all its contradictions and complexities.
Counselling is a collaborative process in which honesty and trust are paramount. At times the process can be challenging, requiring a willingness to work through painful feelings. But it can also be very rewarding as you start to understand yourself better and learn to approach life’s ups and downs with fresh eyes.
You may be…
- experiencing attachment and intimacy difficulties
- overwhelmed by anxiety, panic or stress
- feeling depressed and lacking motivation
- coping with illness
- dealing with loss and bereavement
- experiencing coercive control and abuse
- having problems at work and redundancy
- feeling lonely, isolated and lacking a sense of belonging
- feeling stuck – maybe things aren’t how you want them to be, but you’re not sure how you want them to be
- impacted by racism and intergenerational trauma
- struggling with shame and low self-esteem
- finding it difficult to understand something that is going on right now
- feeling angry and self-destructive
Therapeutic process
The first step is to give me a call or send me an email. We will then fix an appointment at a mutually convenient time. The initial session is a 30 minute, free, no obligation online meeting and a chance for us to get to know each other and for you to tell me what brings you to Counselling.
You may choose to book further sessions once the free consultation is complete. The cornerstone of my counselling and therapy sessions is confidentiality and consent. We can mutually agree to proceeding with any of the modes of online therapy (Zoom, Google Meet or SKYPE) and counselling that I offer.
Once you decide to enter therapy or counselling, I will provide you with an information pack (providing more details about the service). You will also need to sign an agreement and another detailed form. It is important for me as the therapist to understand your issues and problems completely and therefore I will be asking you several questions. Therapy will work best only if you are honest and provide me with complete information. I stress again that the most important things for me as a therapist is to maintain confidentiality. We will set goals for the therapy sessions and thereafter explore the issues and the ways of addressing them. We will review progress regularly and make course corrections, as necessary.
You can end therapy whenever you want to but in the normal course, therapy is mutually ended when you feel your goals of therapy have been achieved.