About Counselling
The Aim of Counselling
"WHEN SOMEONE SHOWS YOU WHO THEY ARE, BELIEVE THEM THE FIRST TIME."
- Maya Angelou
Having both personally and professionally experienced the power of psychological therapy; how it can help to overcome emotional difficulties, nurture the inner child, build a holistic view of ourselves as adults, abolish that excessive worry that may be keeping you stuck and stop you from reaching out to your dreams, my aim is to offer a collaborative, compassionate and nurturing environment for you, where you can start to become curious about your own uniqueness, start working on reducing your emotional pain and heal internal wounds. In a confidential and non-judgemental space together, we can explore what stops you from thriving.
I believe that the most important relationship we have is with ourselves: self- compassion and self-love can change our worlds, and help us to achieve in life what we want (have meaningful relationships, ability to manage anxiety, feel joy in life, accept ourselves as a combination of mind and body, stop self-medicating with external matters etc.). However, self-compassion can be so difficult to practice when you have experienced difficult life experiences and/or perhaps feel that there has been little compassion in your life. I want to bring you hope and support you in becoming your own best friend and finding acceptance of yourself. When you are ready and want to start building a better relationship with yourself, get in touch as I would love to hear from you.
What is Counselling & Psychotherapy?
THE OPPORTUNITY TO UNCOVER AND EXPLORE OUR WAYS OF THINKING AND FEELING
It is a process of profound engagement with and exploration of our internal world, with the help and support of a therapist. It provides the opportunity to uncover and explore our ways of thinking and feeling in such a way that we are better able to understand and make sense of our behaviours, emotions, moods and responses; in many cases these may have become hidden, confusing or disruptive in our day-to-day lives. Through these insights, therapy offers the possibility for change.
The Process of Counselling
01 Relating
CONNECTING & FEELING SAFE
Connection, feeling safe and establishing the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client are fundamental to succeeding in therapeutic change. It is a state of profound contact and engagement between two people, in which each person is fully real with the other, and able to understand and value the other’s experiences at a high level.
02 Understanding
COLLABORATE & ASSESS
The main goal of the understanding as the therapist is to collaborate with the client to clarify and assess their issues, so that together they are able to agree on a shared initial definition of how to change. The process of therapy essentially is a journey of self-discovery and it involves observing one’s life’s story and uncovering parts that are in our unconscious and bringing them into our self-awareness. This is the first step in being true to one’s self.
03 Change
ABILITY TO BE PRESENT
Irvin D. Yalom, a pioneer in existential psychotherapy, argues that ‘Change is the business of Psychotherapy’. Clients come into therapy because they wish for something in their lives to be different. Much client work is therefore driven by a concern to understand that which is unclear in order that meaningful and lasting change can then be brought about. Yet even if understanding has been achieved, the change process does not always follow on in an automatic way. Clients still have to wrestle with complexities around implementation. It is important to recognise that simply having the wish to change does not mean that the ability to change is also present. Comprehension and competence are different attributes. For change to be achieved and sustained, it is important for both desire and ability to be present.
“’Your visions will become clear when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
- Carl Jung -