What counselling can help with:

Many clients tell me the difference counselling makes for them is having someone outside of family and friends who cares for them, listens with interest and attention, but is not personally involved with them.

Clients often have said, even though they have a good support network, they do not wish to burden those close to them with their own difficulties and distress.

Sometimes we need a space just for us where there is no expectation to reciprocate the support offered; where we can talk freely without fear of judgment, or expectations of the other person for us to behave a certain way.

 

‘When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for’

(Rogers, 1980, pp. 160-1)

 

Counselling can offer us a time just for ourselves to focus on what is unsettling, puzzling, disturbing, frustrating or frightening. If we are confused and stuck, going over and over the same difficulties in our head, counselling can offer a chance to externalise these thoughts and explore the feelings and personal meanings.

It can help make sense of the confusion so you can make some order out of the muddle. It can help you gain clarity of what is the root of the problem and what might be keeping the problem going in the present.

Through building a therapeutic relationship between yourself and me, counselling  can help clarify what matters most to you and who you are and who you can be.

“In my early professional years, I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person?  Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”

(Rogers, 1961, p.32)

My main areas of experience and interest,  working with clients who are experiencing:

• loss and bereavement 

death of a loved one, plus secondary losses of your ‘cheer leader’ and companion, changing roles and responsibilities, reduced sense of safety and confidence

• life stage issues 

for instance parenting and maternity, aging process, ‘empty nest’

• identity, sexuality and gender issues 

coming out in sexuality, exploring gender diversity and difference to what was assigned at birth, living as a minority and living with microaggressions, prejudice and abuse

• existential issues 

How has the 'old me' gone? who am I now? Who will I be? What is my purpose?

• redundancy, retirement and unemployment

• work-related stress and distress 

workload, work-life balance, bullying, threat of job loss. dissatisfaction

• long term health conditions

• life limiting health issues and palliative issues

e.g. cancer, MS, dementia, strokes

• disability and living with sensory losses

living in an inaccessible and non-inclusive world; changes in abilities and independence

• sexual abuse

• domestic or intimate partner abuse

• decision-making

• Personal development

during further counselling training and for senior accreditation; for working on continuous improvement and increased self-awareness