What Is Counselling?
Counselling offers you a safe place to talk and be heard. It is about taking a reflective journey with the counsellor alongside you, with the aim of enhancing your life by making sense of what has happened to you or where things are going wrong for you.
It is a collaborative process that can help you to move from a place in which you are struggling with certain elements of your life to a place where your life is closer to being the best it can be for you.
How Can I Tell Who Will Be The Right Counsellor For Me?
Not every style or counselling approach suits everyone. One size does not fit all.
Research proves a good relationship between the client and counsellor creates a safe, trusting environment. This is the single most important element for therapy to be successful. I am always happy to offer an initial one off appointment for you to see if I am the right person for you to work with.
Who Has Counselling?
Anyone. There isn’t a type, gender or age of person; the main thing is having the motivation to look inside yourself, with the support of your counsellor, to better understand your thoughts, feelings and responses.
A recent survey found over 25% of the population had used counselling to successfully help them cope with their difficulties.
Integrative Relational Therapy
Integrative counselling works on the premise that no single approach is suitable for every person in every situation; and instead considers each individual as a whole person with unique needs and circumstances. It brings together specific elements of one or more counselling theories tailored to meet those individual needs at a pace that suits you.
As an Integrative Relational Counsellor I primarily draw on Psychodynamic, Person Centred and Attachment-based Theory. At times I will also call on elements of other theories if they seem to be of use to you.
Person Centred Theory
Person Centred Theory is based on the belief that everyone has the potential and desire within them to make the right choices for themselves.
I will be alongside you to provide a safe, accepting and empathic space for you to explore your situation and begin to understand the way you feel about yourself in the here and now.
Psychodynamic Theory
Psychodynamic Theory is based on the principle that we have an internal world, created by our early life experiences, that influence how we feel, think and respond. We are aware of some of these factors but a lot of it is buried deep within us.
I will help you to recognise and understand patterns that recur in your life by supporting you to bring unconscious responses into your conscious mind in a supportive environment. In understanding your own responses, you can begin to decide whether to follow your old patterns or choose a different approach.
Attachment-based Therapy
Attachment to others is a fundamental human need. Attachment-based Therapy is based on the idea that the way we attached to our early caregivers, and the ways we found most effective in getting our needs met, affects the way we relate to ourselves and others, and how we respond to different situations, throughout our lives.
For some of us there is an obvious reason why difficulties may have occurred, however for others, even loving, supportive families may not have always been able to meet all of our emotional needs, through no one’s fault. When we have experienced trauma, or our early care givers have not been well attuned to us or have been physically or emotionally absent from us, this will impact our adult lives in many ways, resulting in difficulties with self-worth, relationships, anxiety, depression, mal-adaptive coping strategies and low self-confidence to name just a few.
I can work with you to help you understand your early experiences and how they have affected you. In doing so we will begin to repair some of the areas of your life that are causing you difficulties, helping you to move forward with a better chance of getting your needs met and increasing your sense of well-being in relationship with yourself and others.
