Counselling

Making the decision to have counselling is an act of great strength and self-care.

You may be considering counselling because you are feeling troubled, distressed or overwhelmed by something happening in your life or by a pattern that you are finding yourself repeating. We often feel compelled to bottle up uncomfortable feelings in order to deal with difficult experiences. Counselling can provide an opportunity to look at what has been buried or never acknowledged. Alternatively, you may feel you could benefit from making time to think through a transition or an aspect of your life together with someone who is outside of your family, work and friendship groups – someone who can listen carefully and respectfully to what you are grappling with and work with you to understand this more fully.

Counselling is not about giving advice, providing solutions, managing behaviour or ‘fixing’ things, although it does bring about change. Talking openly and honestly about yourself, your life experiences and your relationships can provide a sense of relief and a feeling of not being so alone with an issue or concern. It can also feel challenging – especially if you are sharing your story for the very first time, or have tried talking to others before and not got the response you wanted. Counselling can help you to gain a clearer view of things, which in turn can enable you to make decisions in your life that feel right for you now and in the future. When a situation can’t be changed, for whatever reason, counselling can help you find a different way of living with it.

How long you might come for counselling is very individual: sometimes just one session can make a difference, other times a few sessions feel helpful through to sessions over many months or years. Whatever the time frame, it is important that the direction, pace and depth we go to in sessions are always informed and guided by you.