About Counseling

What is counseling

Counseling is an opportunity for you to talk about your thoughts and feelings in a safe environment without fear of judgement or criticism.  Whether you are currently experiencing difficulties or you want to understand yourself better, speaking to a professional can help make sense of things. 

Why come to counseling

People seek counseling for many different reasons.  You may be experiencing relationship difficulties, or perhaps there has been some major life event which has affected you.  Or maybe you are struggling with stress, anxiety or depression and want to understand what triggers your negative thinking patterns.

Coming to counseling doesn’t mean that you are unwell or unable to cope with things. If anything, it shows that you have the courage to face reality head on and look at the things that are challenging you.

There are times when it can be too difficult to talk to those who are close to you, as they may be dealing with their own difficulties or may be unable to hear what you are really saying. 

how does counseling help

So how can counselling help? How can talking help if you’re having relationship problems, anxiety, panic attacks, anger issues etc?

In my sessions, you’ll get the chance to drop the brave face, stop pretending everything’s okay and just feel the relief of telling me what it’s really like to be you.

Just being able to talk to somebody neutral without fear of upsetting them or being judged can be a huge relief and being able to say out loud what you’re really feeling can be a game changer.

The result? Clarity and understanding about how you’ve been feeling and the confidence to make changes. What kind of changes?

How you view yourself and others;
How you treat yourself and others;
Understanding WHY you have these views and behaviours;
New Insight about your life experiences and relationships;
The confidence to make positive changes.

WHO IS COUNSELING FOR

Counseling can be for absolutely anyone. There’s no shame in admitting that we might need help sometimes.

People often believe that Counseling is only for people who are suicidal or really not well mentally, but it is just not so.

Counseling is there to help and support people who are finding ANY area of life difficult to deal with by themselves.

Counseling STOPS your issues from snowballing into a crisis situation.

Counseling is a safe space to talk about the things we don’t want to “burden” our friends and loved ones with.

Talking to a Counselor is neutral territory. You don’t have to worry about whether talking to a Counsellor will upset them or change how they feel about you because a Counsellor is not your family or friends.

A Counselor is a mental health professional who knows from personal experience how difficult it is to talk about your problems.

Why?

Well, we have to sit through counselling ourselves in order to qualify as a Counselor, so as well as seeing the difference counseling can have for our clients, we have personal experience of being “the client”.

Some of us just need a little bit of a helping hand and some of us might need long term support whilst we work through bigger issues.

Either way, Counseling is a wonderful way of finally putting yourself first.

Counseling finally gives you that extra bit of help to work through “stuff” that keeps getting in the way.

what to expect

Attending counseling for the first time can be a daunting experience.  In your initial session, we can talk through the process and how we are going to work together.  We can also talk about what you would like to gain from counselling. You can then make the decision as to whether you would like to book any further sessions.  

The follow-up sessions can be scheduled weekly in the beginning and can then gradually be spaced once in 15 days or a month as you feel more and more confident of your progress.

how long will the counseling sessions last

A typical counseling session lasts from 45minutes to 60 minutes. However, if you feel the need to share more, the session can be extended  depending on availability of time. 

You are not obligated to any number of sessions.   You may find that you have achieved what you wanted to after only a few sessions, or you may feel that some longer-term work would be of benefit.