What is Counselling and Psychotherapy?

Counselling is where you can talk freely about issues that are troubling you to help you deal with them. It takes place in a secure environment, on a one-to-one basis, where you are listened to in an unconditional, non-judgemental and positive manner.

There are no pre-conceived ideas or expectations of you as a client and counselling is not about telling you what to do.

Counselling will enable you to explore any issues and problems you feel are getting in the way and preventing you from dealing with your life on a day-to-day basis, or something more longer term that has been avoided. Therapeutic talking can help you understand your feelings from the past and can give you a view of how your attitudes and behaviours determine situations in your life.

Therapeutic Counselling

Therapeutic Counselling works on building a good working alliance and relationship between us to facilitate you in dealing with your concerns. I promise you complete confidentiality and hope that you will trust me by being entirely open and honest with what you bring to the sessions. I am very happy to speak with you in advance during a short telephone call if you would like further information or to ask more questions.

What happens in Counselling and Psychotherapy?

Firstly, you would attend an assessment session to talk about your reasons for seeking counselling now. This is your opportunity to meet with me to ensure you feel comfortable and confident and I will explain in more detail how counselling will work for you as an individual. Do not worry; it is quite common for people to feel apprehensive or nervous about meeting a counsellor for the first time.

If you decide to undertake counselling with me, we will agree an initial course of six 50 minute sessions. These will be set at a pre-agreed time and day, generally on a weekly basis. Fixing sessions is part of your commitment to working towards solutions in the counselling time that belongs to you. Sessions always take place in a secure and confidential environment. Together we would look at the issues that are causing you problems or distress and explore how your emotions and feelings are being determined. By talking, you will look to increase your self-awareness and acquire skills that are beneficial to the changes you wish to make within yourself.

You can have as many sessions as you feel necessary. We can work together over an agreed number of sessions, or we can work on an ongoing basis until you feel you have more effective ways of coping with your issues