Counselling

Gain support, insight and clarity for yourself

 

Counselling is a way of enabling choice or change or of reducing confusion. By listening attentively and patiently the counsellor can begin to perceive the difficulties from the client's point of view and can help them to see things more clearly, possibly from a different perspective. It does not involve giving advice or directing a client to take a particular course of action. Counsellors do not judge or exploit their clients in any way.

In the counselling sessions the client can explore various aspects of their life and feelings, talking about them freely and openly in a way that is rarely possible with friends or family. Bottled up feelings such as anger, anxiety, grief and embarrassment can become very intense and counselling offers an opportunity to explore them, with the possibility of making them easier to understand. The counsellor will encourage the expression of feelings and as a result of their training will be able to accept and reflect the client's problems without becoming burdened by them.

Acceptance and respect for the client are essentials for a counsellor and, as the relationship develops, so too does trust between the counsellor and client, enabling the client to look at many aspects of their life, their relationships and themselves which they may not have considered or been able to face before. The counsellor may help the client to examine in detail the behaviour or situations which are proving troublesome and to find an area where it would be possible to initiate some change as a start. The counsellor may help the client to look at the options open to them and help them to decide the best for them.

 

Person Centred Counselling

Person Centred Counselling is a type of counselling that focusses on what the client is saying and from that meaning is created.  This meaning allows the client to explore deeper into their own mind with the guidance of the counsellor.  It is a self empowering form of counselling that leaves the client equipped with tools to use should the same triggers or situations occur in the future.  The 3 core characteristics of this type of counselling are 1. Unconditional Positive Regard, meaning that the counsellor accepts the client unconditionally and non-judgementally.  2. Empathic understanding, meaning that the counsellor accurately understands the client's thoughts, feelings and meanings from the client's own perspective, in other words the counsellor can "wear the client's shoes".   3.  The third characteristic is "congruence" which means that the counsellor is authentic and genuine.  I am present and transparent with the client, straight forward and put things in lay mens' terms to be easily understood.  I believe these three core characteristics enable the client to develop and grow in their own way - to strengthen and expand their own identity and to become the person that they 'really' are independently of the pressures that are put on them by others to act or think in particular ways.