Individuals
Explore new perspectives and alternative life choices. There are many reasons why people seek counselling, and these are as varied as people themselves. Individual counselling can help if you are struggling in certain areas of your life. Whilst stress is an inevitable part of everyday life, sometimes demands can exceed your individual resources and you may experience feelings of being lost, stuck or overwhelmed, with no clear way forward. Counselling can help by offering a private and confidential space where you can begin to explore difficulties, negative thoughts and feelings in order to give them a new perspective and make them easier to understand and deal with. We work together to set realistic goals, identifying and drawing on your personal skills and strengths. Talking to a professional can help to identify new perspectives and alternative life choices, leading to a healthier emotional and physical life. The changes you want to make to improve your life can come from taking small, manageable steps
Couples
My aim is to challenge unhelpful patterns of communication and behaviour. Are you constantly arguing, feeling like you are going round in circles, never able to resolve conflict? Perhaps communication has never been as good as you hoped, or may have broken down completely, leaving you feeling lonely within the relationship. Maybe your relationship has suffered a trauma, such as infidelity, and you are finding it hard to rebuild trust in one another. These challenges, along with major life transitions, or perhaps problems with intimacy and sex, are just some of the many issues I can help with.
All relationships come under strain from time to time, but a prolonged accumulation of stress can lead to feelings of helplessness, confusion and disappointment for couples. At these times couples can lose sight of why they are together, with neither partner feeling heard or supported. Even when a relationship appears to be at breaking point and divorce/separation seem inevitable, talking through your problems with a trained couples’ therapist can increase your insight and understanding of each other and of your relationship.
We will work together to identify unhelpful patterns of communication and behaviour and help you develop your own skills in resolving these difficulties. My aim is always to work in a way that feels safe and contained, but where you can face challenging topics, such as the influence of your childhood and family on relationships, always linking the past with the present. A couple therapist’s responsibility is to you both and to the relationship; both of you will get equal time, attention and understanding. Following therapy many couples go on to rebuild loving, satisfying relationships. We can work together towards this aim or, should you wish, towards separating or divorcing as amicably as is possible. Most people leave having learned a lot about themselves, as well as their partner and their relationship.
Families
Reflecting on what is important for your family and how you would like to move forward. Family Therapy helps people in a close relationship help each other cope with any distress, misunderstanding and pain that is putting their family unit under strain. A family therapist aims to promote understanding and collaboration among family members in order to solve the problems of one or more family members. An example of this could be a child experiencing social or academic problems; counselling will focus on family patterns which may contribute to the child's behaviour, rather than concentrating on the child in isolation. As the family uncovers the roots of the problem, they can learn to better support the child and each other, working proactively on changing any conditions that contribute to the child's unhelpful behaviour.
Therapy can help family members to understand other’s points of view and experiences in an empathetic, safe environment. During therapy we will explore each family member’s needs and create an understanding not only of individual difficulties, but also of individual strengths. It can provide an opportunity to take stock and reflect on what is important for your family and how you would like to move forward.
Family therapy can be useful for children, young people and adults facing a wide range of difficulties and experiences; some of these are listed below:
• Relational difficulties
• Child, adolescent and adult behavioural difficulties
• Mental health issues
• Parenting issues
• Illness
• Separation, divorce and step-family life
• Autism Spectrum Conditions
• Self-harm and addictions
• The effects of trauma and abuse
• Life cycle changes
• Bereavement and loss