INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING / PSYCHOTHERAPY

What is it?

Counselling takes place when a counsellor sees a client in a private and confidential setting to explore a difficulty the client is having, distress they may be experiencing or perhaps their dissatisfaction with life, or loss of a sense of direction and purpose. It is always at the request of the client.

By listening attentively and patiently the counsellor can begin to perceive the difficulties from the client's point of view and can help them to see things more clearly, possibly from a different perspective. Counselling is a way of enabling choice or change or of reducing confusion.

It does not involve giving advice or directing a client to take a particular course of action. Counsellors do not judge or exploit their clients in any way.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly", Buckminster Fuller.  

In the counselling sessions the client can explore various aspects of their life and feelings, talking about them freely and openly in a way that is rarely possible with friends or family. Bottled up feelings such as anger, anxiety, grief and embarrassment can become very intense and counselling offers an opportunity to explore them, with the possibility of making them easier to understand. The counsellor will encourage the expression of feelings and as a result of their training will be able to accept and reflect the client's problems without becoming burdened by them.

Acceptance and respect for the client are essentials for a counsellor and, as the relationship develops, so too does trust between the counsellor and client, enabling the client to look at many aspects of their life, their relationships and themselves which they may not have considered or been able to face before. The counsellor may help the client to examine in detail the behaviour or situations which are proving troublesome and to find an area where it would be possible to initiate some change as a start. The counsellor may help the client to look at the options open to them and help them to decide the best for them.

It does not offer quick answers, but asks the participant to engage in a process and an exploration. Most benefit is drawn from counselling by the person who engages with this process. The overall aim of counselling is to provide an opportunity for you to work towards a more satisfying and resourceful experience of life. Naturally, each person’s needs are different.

Counselling may be concerned with personal development issues addressing and resolving specific problems:

• making decisions
• coping with crisis
• developing personal insight and knowledge
• working through feelings of inner conflict
• improving relationships with others

or any number of other issues, large or small, which crop up in everyday life. The counsellor's role is to facilitate your work in ways that respect your values and personal resources.