Individuals In counselling, you have the opportunity to talk safely and confidentially about what is troubling you with a trained professional. To be really listened to is a powerful experience, which in itself can promote healing and change. Additionally some people welcome and benefit from the use of simple techniques that can help create insight or access to feelings.
In counselling the focus is predominantly on resolving current problems. We explore your conscious behaviour and begin to develop an awareness of how your feelings and beliefs influence that. As such, counselling tends to be shorter –term work
However when we work with current problems, we can often find that the roots of the difficulty go further back- into childhood and adolescence. We can discover that because of these earlier experiences we have developed ways of perceiving and behaving that no longer work for us, sabotaging our efforts to create change and healing. We can become conscious of feelings that we find difficult such as anger, shame, guilt, and fear.
And, sometimes, through the experience of a trauma, bereavement or a fundamental life change, an individual can find themselves plunged into this deeper level of themselves.
When we work at this deeper level, it is called psychotherapy. It is usually a longer process than counselling.
The introductory one-hour session offers the opportunity for us to explore your issues and to decide what might best meet your needs. This might include offering you an initial contract of six sessions.
