About Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Both are used as an umbrella term to help individuals to work through either specific areas or to deepen their own understanding of who they are in the world. We often take on a role as parent, sibling, grandchild, teacher, nurse, IT consultant etc but sometimes we reach a point where we would like to expand our understanding of the self. The therapeutic space is where such exploratory work can take place without feeling judged and where boundaries such as confidentiality are in place.
Counselling and psychotherapy can assist individuals to process their painful emotions by talking them through with someone who is qualified and impartial. Counsellors and Psychotherapists undergo rigorous training and will have experienced being the client in their own personal therapy. This allows them to fully empathise with their client and to ensure their own processes are kept separate.
Both counselling and psychotherapy can be open ended and long-term, this is discussed at the initial meeting.
What Benefits can be Expected?
Counselling and Psychotherapy can be a vehicle for change, ultimately change might be an outcome goal, however, the journey will be different for everyone. It is very difficult to measure outcomes when concerning psychological well-being, however, the client is the master of their own emotions and successes should be measured by their experiences.
Clients who struggled with their confidence and low self-esteem may feel less anxious about attending social events, job interviews or speaking up in board meetings. All of which underpin society's expectations. When clients challenge their own fears, it allows space for growth and progress.
My Approach:
My integrative approach consists of ideas from Humanistic and Psychodynamic Schools of Psychotherapy. Respectively these schools provide me with a here-and-now way of relating and a there-and-then perspective to work with past trauma and conflicts through the relational present. My approach is non-directive, I believe I work at my optimum when working collaboratively with clients.
