Counselling and psychotherapy

 

Taking the first step towards asking for support can be difficult, but once that first step has been taken, you will hopefully begin an insightful and rewarding process of self-discovery that can lead to improvement in many aspects of your life.

 

Both counselling and psychotherapy can help us deal with our problems in a fresh way and enrich our lives generally. Whilst the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, counselling tends to focus on a specific current problem, whereas psychotherapy tends to look at more deep-seated issues that are likely to have a basis in the past. The type of counselling and psychotherapy I offer is open-ended psychodynamic therapy.

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Together, we work in a safe and confidential space, to build a trusting relationship. This relationship will be used to explore personal problems, to enable you to make sense of your unhappiness. Through careful listening, reflecting and questioning I will support you in developing insight into your problems and issues, help you rediscover your own inner resources and enable you to approach your life in a new way.

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At times, I incorporate elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) into selected sessions. Briefly, the idea behind CBT is that what we think, how we behave and how we feel are all closely related – and they all affect our wellbeing. CBT can help us to break into the negative cycle of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that we can unconsciously set up.

 

I also offer six-session Solution Focused Brief Therapy in which we choose a focus to work on – something specific in your current life that would benefit from focussed attention and action. Through positive and forward-thinking questioning, I help you to draw from the resources you already have to help you set goals and objectives to work towards in the present and near-future.