What is counselling?

Counselling is a space unlike any other where you can enjoy the privacy of regular confidential consultations with a professional who will help you feel heard and understood. It generally takes place over a period of a few months or more, during which time the counsellor will help you feel safe to talk about what’s going on in your life, what you wish for and how to get there.

How I work

My training and experience is in the person centred approach and this is central to the way I work. This approach is non-directive – which means I go with what you bring. I do not diagnose or give advice but listen and pay attention to you – your thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears. I respect and honour your worldview and your experience of yourself. I am fully present to everything that you bring to each session – past, present or future. I don’t tell you what to do but I walk along beside you to help you find your own best answer.

I am also trained in the Compassionate Inquiry approach, which pays attention to your experience in the present moment in order to better understand and process your experience from the past, where it has become stuck or unhelpful in your life. This approach can be helpful where there has been trauma, or where you have had to make adaptations in your worldview which now hinder your life goals.

In both cases I pay attention to feelings, thoughts, beliefs, words, images, dreams, metaphors, sensations, physical symptoms, memories – all of the many different ways in which you might experience and express yourself. These may be from the past but I very much work in the here-and-now – to what is being experienced in the present moment while we work together.

My presence, at all times, is in relation to you and what you want from therapy.

Although we may be working online and not physically sharing the same space, I will take time to ensure that you feel safe in your space. I may use breathing and guided meditation techniques to help you feel grounded and present, here with me.

Getting started

We start with an initial consultation of counselling to help you talk about what’s brought you to therapy in a safe, confidential setting. I will help you think about what you are hoping to get out of therapy, and you will have an experience of working with me, to help you decide if this feels right for you. We leave a bit of time at the end of the session to think about what happens next.

If you wish to continue, sessions take place weekly and can be a specific number of sessions or your therapy can be ongoing. I work to ensure that the timescale works for you, and help you recognise when you feel ready to leave therapy.

Outcomes

Clients I have worked with report feeling more calm and able to express themselves freely, without fear of judgement; their inner process has become more fluid, less ‘edited’ or ‘interrupted’ and, often, they feel more ‘playful’, with a sense of their own creative possibility.

“. . . I felt myself change in my body and my mind . . .”

Issues worked with

Equality statement

Equal care will be provided to all patients, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, physical ability or attributes, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.