About counselling
Counselling and psychotherapy are interchangeable words which refer to the different talking therapies, although psychotherapy is often considered to involve a more in-depth, long-term exploration of one's past. However, counselling can be equally in-depth and insightful, depending on where you wish to go. People enter therapy for various reasons. You do not have to be in crisis to seek a therapist. Sometimes it may be because a person is experiencing difficulties in life, going through a bad patch resulting in feelings of anxiety, low mood, anger or frustration. Or it could be something indefinable, a sense of issues unresolved or someone may wish to better understand themselves, perhaps by exploring something from their past. One of the goals is to develop self-awareness, how we relate to others, for it is this awareness that can lead to greater freedom and autonomy and alleviate stress and anxiety.
Stress and anxiety are the key issues of our time - they can contribute to any amount of discomfort and distress and are experienced as very real; a vicious cycle from which it feels impossible to escape. They may also be symptoms of a deeper unease. Counselling helps to understand how early experiences inform who you are as adults so you can separate the past from the present. The focus is on you - your internal world and what's happening rather than external circumstances which may be harder to control.
In a dark time the eye begins to see - Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The following are some of the reasons people seek therapy:
Age and retirement issues
Anxiety
Anger
Addiction
Bullying
Depression
Domestic violence
General sense of unhappiness - that there is more to life...
Intrusive thoughts
Issues around sexuality
Life changes
Low self esteem and lacking self confidence
Loss and bereavement
Mood swings
Needing a sense of belonging
Relationship difficulties
Panic attacks
Traumatic experiences
Work-related problems
Expressing emotions can be part of the healing process so that you don't have to use a lot of extra energy holding on to old hurts and pain. What I am here for is to help you experience and explore feelings, some of which may have been buried or denied. Therapy will not necessarily solve all your problems - and certainly not overnight - but it may help you live more effectively and contentedly, enabling you to cope better with life's challenges.
It is, of course, about change which most of us fear: Faced with a choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof - John Galbraith. However, be comforted, for...A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow - Richard Bach