What is counselling/ psychotherapy and how does it help?

Counselling and psychotherapy are often called ‘talking treatments’ because they tend to involve talking about your thoughts, feelings, experiences and beliefs, though you may choose to write or draw in our sessions too and we may agree on exercises to undertake between sessions. 

We often form patterns of behaviour at an earlier point in life and continue with them long after they have stopped being useful to us and may now harm or distress us. 

By meeting with the same therapist each week, you work together to create a ‘therapeutic relationship’. Through this, you can develop a greater understanding of yourself, your choices and behaviour and may learn to make choices which will make your life work better for you.

What do I do as a therapist?

Provide a safe, private ‘breathing space’ from the rest of your life

• It’s a place for you, focussed on your needs and concerns
• Talking to someone separate from your day-to-day life can help you think about yourself freely, in a way which is sometimes difficult with friends and family

Listen to you with respect and care

• Accepting you as you are, without judging you
• Therapists seek to understand exactly how you see the world; using their training and experience, they will try and help you make new connections between things and see the ‘bigger picture’ with fresh eyes
  

Work with you to improve your wellbeing

• Helping you to plan changes you want to make in your life and form strategies to manage this
• A trained therapist brings a professional understanding of exploring complex issues, and experience of managing change with structure and focus

Support you through difficult experiences

• Sometimes trying to understand how we feel can seem impossibly difficult; sometimes our feelings or experiences can be so painful, we are frightened by them. A therapist stays with you in the painful, lost feelings and will help you to find a path out of the difficulty which you might not have seen.

What can therapy help with?

Counselling and psychotherapy have helped many people manage and recover from a huge range of emotional and mental distress, including:

• Feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope or concentrate
• An inability to deal with stress or recover from stressful situations
• Lack of confidence, excessive shyness or low self esteem
• Feelings of depression, sadness, grief or emptiness
• Anxiety, panic attacks, mood swings and phobias
• Debilitating feelings of anger or fear
• Difficulty making or sustaining relationships, or repeatedly becoming involved in unsatisfying or destructive relationships
• Identity issues
• Sexuality and gender issues
• Difficulties in coming to terms with losses such as bereavement, separation or loss of employment
• Traumatic past events and experiences 
• Self harm and self harming behaviours
• Obsessive behaviour

Therapy can also be a proactive choice to:
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• Understand longstanding patterns of behaviour and thought which may no longer be helpful
• Challenge blocks to creativity and facilitate personal development and growth
• Explore beliefs, hopes and ambitions for the future and their achievement​

If you would like to make an enquiry, please contact me via this email address or on the number at the bottom of this page

NB- I endeavour to respond to messages within two working days but cannot guarantee a response time. Please visit the links page if you need urgent help

​Read more about Online Therapy here.