I Specialise In: I work with a wide range of clients and issues. In addition to this, outside of my counselling work, I have worked alongside adults with learning difficulties/disabilities for ten years. Within my counselling, I am therefore able to bring the additional experience of communicating with and relating to a wide range of people.
I offer indoor and outdoor talking, walking and creative therapy to help us understand your feelings and work to explore the underlying issues, how you want your life to be and how you might achieve that.
How Exactly Does Your Therapy Work?: Counselling is a talking therapy. Through listening to you talk about what is troubling you, I work alongside you to understand how you are experiencing life right now. I provide a warm, accepting and open space for you to explore your thoughts and feelings, and move towards greater self-awareness and fulfillment. We can do this indoors, in a confidential therapy room, or outdoors in nature.
I view the counselling process as an opportunity for you to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings and experiences which provides the opportunity to open up and grow – rather like an unfurling fern. My role in our counselling is similar to a fellow traveller. I will accompany you on your “journey”, holding a safe space and attempting to fully understand your experience and the things that are dissatisfying or holding you back from where you want to be. I bring my knowledge, experience, intuition and perspective into our work, and together we can find the “tools” that help you gain greater awareness and choice in how you live.
I work mainly from a person-centred approach which means I focus on how you are experiencing life right here and now. I support you to lead your counselling in the direction that feels right for you. I also use existential ideas to explore themes of responsibility, choice, freedom and meaning in life. I may offer to bring in creative techniques to explore particular issues which can bring a new perspective on what you are experiencing.
What kinds of symptoms have people who seek your services usually presenting with: People who seek my services are generally needing help with Depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders / disordered eating, OCD, relationship issues, bereavement, suicidal thoughts and feelings, self harm, low self esteem, anger, abuse, a sense of wanting more direction in life, fears and phobias.
When a client has completed all their therapy(s) with you, what do you hope to have changed for them, compared to when you first met them: A better understanding of themselves as a person – e.g. what gives them meaning, their beliefs about themselves and others, what they need to feel safe and loved, what they want from life. A greater sense of being able to cope and of finding fulfilment in life.
