How may counselling help?

Talking to someone who gives you his or her total attention and empathy, may be a way to help you see yourself and your situation in a clearer more balanced way. Feelings of release from being alone with your difficult or confusing thoughts and feelings are often experienced.

With this talking therapy, experiencing issues and feelings in a new light can clarify them and help you see a new pathway. This may enable you to work with any issues and see how you can manage and achieve changes.  It may also help you come to terms with, and manage those things you cannot change.

You might want to talk about all aspects of your life, or you may be struggling with particular issues such as:

• Marital or relationship issues

• Family problems or struggles in caring for someone

• Physical health or disability

•  Feelings such as shame guilt anger or lack of confidence

• Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, stress

• Life transitions such as leaving home, retirement or starting university

• Life events like becoming a step-parent, divorce or loss

• Feelings about yourself, your personality, identity or sexuality

• Trauma, abuse, violence or self-harm/injury in your life

Other specific mental health problems or disorders

So often clients say that they felt nervous about the prospect of being faced with a blank screen type of 'professional' person - someone who would just stare at them silently. We are 'human' and 'ordinary' - we know from our own personal experiences of counselling / therapy that none of this stuff is easy.

As part of our professional training, we have counselling ourselves and most counsellors continue to have therapy sessions after qualifying. I feel it enables us to feel what it is like to be in the client’s place, therefore, have a good grasp of the complexities and emotions therapy brings.