About Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a professional relationship between therapist and client in which the client is supported to explore difficulties, experiences and feelings.
Therapy is an opportunity to talk openly and frankly with a person who is non-judgemental and trained to listen in a supportive and responsive way. This is essentially what makes it different from talking to a family member or friend, who might reassure you when you need challenge or might dismiss you when you really need to be heard. The role of the therapist is to walk alongside you through your ‘struggle’.
Yet people also come when they are not sure what has gone wrong, why life simply feels drained of vibrancy and meaning, when the way forward feels foggy or even impenetrable. They come for deeply troubling reasons but do not have the words to describe the trouble they are in. It is as if their confidence and self-esteem has ebbed away: they feel out of sorts with themselves.
The aim of psychotherapy is to develop an awareness of why you feel the way you feel about yourself and others, and how you respond to life and those around you. This awareness may result in soothing and/or challenging you as you become faced with new choices.
About Counselling
Counselling can be shorter term work in that it usually focuses on a more immediate problem, for example relationship difficulty and how best to resolve a conflict or how to make an life changing decision in your life like moving abroad. I would encourage you to talk to me about how you feel about the situation and to identify improved ways of coping.
These are some of the issues I have experience of working with:
What benefits can be expected?
People from all walks of life with a variety of issues could potentially benefit from psychotherapy. When the issues for exploration are of a profound and long-term nature (such as a history of abuse or neglect during childhood), or maybe a reaction to a situation that is happening now, psychotherapy can provide a safe environment in which we can explore together your feelings and reactions to them.
This could lead potentially to an acceptance or a resolution of your difficulties