Counselling or Psychotherapy?
Counselling and Psychotherapy are "the talking cures". The relationship between the client and therapist is one where open and honest dialogue is encouraged in a safe, confidential and non-judgemental environment. You may find it difficult to speak of your "true" feelings because you feel guilty, disloyal or feel that you are just being stupid or weak and should just "get a grip". It is my job to provide a supportive arena where all your emotions, thoughts and feelings can be freely explored and expressed. It is with this expression, acknowledgement and understanding that healing, acceptance and change can start to take place.There are two ways of working in psychotherapy :-
Short-term Work
Short-term work is aimed at providing answers and solutions to immediate difficulties. For example, there's that promotion you know you would be perfect for but you lack the confidence to put yourself forward. Together we would explore the blocks that are stopping you from achieving your goals. The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy model would be used primarily for this type of issue. The work usually takes between 6 to 12 sessions.Deeper Work
You may come to counselling with the aim of addressing a particular issue, however, this may lead you to decide to take a deeper look at what drives you and makes you who you are; for example: why you keep finding yourself in disappointing relationships or jobs time after time.Alternatively, you may be struggling to cope with issues that have troubled you for a very long time and perhaps never spoken about before.
Together we would work to uncover the underlying (conscious or unconscious) causes to gain deeper understanding of all your difficulties and then we would work to resolve these difficulties which will allow you to make the necessary positive changes.
The work is open-ended with regular reviews.