What is Counselling?
How counselling Could help you
You may be asking what is counselling and is it right for me? Counselling is a talking therapy where you explore with a trained professional counsellor an issue, area of growth or problem that you are experiencing in your life.
There might be a number of reasons why you would want to have counselling. Some of them might be or similar to:
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Something has happened in your life that you are finding difficult to understand and make sense of.
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You have lost someone you cared about and feel like you will never get over the grief.
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You have experienced a traumatic event that has negatively impacted your life
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Your relationships keep on ending the same way and you don't know why but would like to change this.
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You have been feeling low for sometime and don't think this is right.
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You feel anxious and stressed and it's stopping you from enjoying your life and doing things you would like to do.
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You have a difficult choice to make and could do with talking to someone about it.
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You feel lonely and you are finding it hard to make meaningful connections with others.
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Perhaps you are experiencing none of the above but you feel like you could do with talking to someone about your situation.
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The benefits of counselling will vary for each person depending upon their circumstances, what they want to get out from counselling and how much time and commitment they give to the process.
Counselling could help you in a number of ways such as:
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Providing you with a space to explore issues and concerns in an environment that is supportive, open and non-judgemental.
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Help you have time for yourself to reorganise your life after suffering a loss.
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Help you find greater meaning in your life.
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Help you explore your thoughts and emotions so that you can make the right choices for you.
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Help you gain a better understanding of yourself and the things going on in your life
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Developing different and new ways of coping, understanding and living that can better suit you and improve your quality of life.
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Be more self accepting and at peace with yourself.
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Sleep better at night.
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Build your confidence.
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Manage difficult feelings like anger or anxiety more effectively.
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Get a better understanding of how your own needs and how you relate to others
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Working Together
Each counselling session lasts for 50 minutes and is held at the same time each week. The time is yours to bring and talk about anything you want to. Everything you talk about will be held confidentially. Counselling is different to speaking to friends or family as there are no links or attachments with the counsellor to the rest of your life.
Counselling can be either for a specific number of sessions or it can be open ended. I currently work online with clients using Zoom and also do face-to-face sessions with clients.
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At times art and other creative approaches in sessions can be used to assist developing your self awareness if that is something that would appeal to you.
Counselling often can take time for change to occur. It requires you to commit to attending regular sessions and to talk about what is going on in your life and to work at what you want to change.
At times this can be challenging and as your counsellor I will commit to working with you to make sure that this is done in a supportive environment and at a suitable pace for you.
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Each individual session costs £70, including the introductory session. I'm currently offering concessionary rates for those who are students, are unemployed or on low income. Please mention when you enquire.
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Fees
Next steps
If you are interested in starting counselling the next step would be to contact me to arrange an initial introductory session. In this session I can explain in more detail to you about the format of the sessions and how we would work together. I can find out a bit about what you have come to counselling for and we can also identify what you are hoping to get out of it. You can ask me any questions you might have about counselling or how we would work together in general.
I believe that it is important for you to find a therapist or counsellor that you feel comfortable with and who will give you enough support and enough challenge to help you develop as a person and make the most of your time. An introductory session gives us both an opportunity to see if we would be suitable to work together and there is no obligation to start regular sessions from attending one. If we do decide to continue we will periodically review how the sessions are going on a regular basis.
If you are interested in discussing or arranging an initial introductory session, please feel free to email, text or call me. I shall get back to your message as soon as possible.
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I understand that coming to counselling, especially for the first time, can seem daunting. If this rings true for you, I would like to commend you on taking these first steps towards trying something different in your life.