I am passionate about supporting individuals with the issues they bring to counselling. I am caring and respectful when working alongside my clients. I first began my journey into counselling via my own personal development. Having experienced the benefits and changes within me, I subsequently began training as a counsellor.

 

Although my core approach is Humanistic, integrating Person-Centred Counselling, Transactional Analysis and Gestalt Therapy depending on the needs of the client, I also work in a Solution-Focused way. This means I offer a safe and confidential environment where I am empathic, non-judgmental and genuine. I will support you through your journey by being alongside you and listen attentively in order to understand and hear your experience. Having an environment whereby you feel safe enough to disclose/let go of any negative beliefs, fear, anger, sadness or guilt can be extremely healing and aid self-acceptance.

 

Throughout our relationship (which I believe is the key to successful therapy), you will learn more about yourself and be able to identify any obstacles that are preventing you from reaching your full potential. I will support you to draw upon your own coping strategies. This is hugely empowering and will enable you to find a way forward. I can also help individuals to look at how they interact and act, based upon their behavioural patterns learnt as a child. This helps release old feelings and expresses emotions in the present. Once self-awareness evolves, individuals then have the choice of changing the way they relate to the outside world.

 

In addition to the 'talking therapy', (if requested by you) creative methods can be used such as art materials, puppets and stones. These stimuli make it easier to communicate deep issues, fears and worries. They provide a medium through which ideas and feelings can be expressed freely.

 

This poem by Theodore Roszak (1981) sums up what I aim to offer as a counsellor:

 

"You and I….

we meet as strangers, each carrying a mystery within us.

I cannot say who you are; I may never know you completely.

But I trust you are a person in your own right, possessed of a

beauty and value that are the Earth's richest treasures.

So I make this promise to you:

I will impose no identities upon you, but will invite you to become

yourself without shame or fear.

I will hold open a space for you in the world and defend your

right to fill it with an authentic vocation.

 

For as long as your search takes, you have my loyalty."