Counselling

What to expect in therapy

If you're stuck in difficult patterns of thinking, feeling and doing, counselling could help you find more helpful, kind and aware ways to paddle your metaphorical canoe. Listening deeply to you and unpacking the emotional processes we can all get lost in are the bedrock of my approach. You may enjoy using creative methods to help slow things down, explore your experiences and build new possibilities. Learning additional mindfulness and body-honouring stress management methods could also bring welcome balance and relief.

As well as the canoeing idea, what if psychologically painful issues were like jumbled-up pieces of different-coloured wool? Maybe therapy is about gradually teasing apart and releasing tangles so you can create something more life-affirming.

While I've got many years of experience working with university students, graduates and early career professionals, I enjoy working with people of all ages and backgrounds. Wherever you come from, I'm interested in your story and exploring ways to help you move from stuckness towards freedom.

I love being a Gestalt counsellor. Scroll down this page if you want to find out more about what I do during therapy. Content includes video resources that compliment these self-help practices.

Guiding therapeutic principles and practices (How to cook...)

Awareness and listening: Being listened to and listening to others is really important but it's also vital we learn to listen well to ourselves.

Exploring: Therapy helps us explore many of the rich elements that make us who we are. It can be quite a journey.

Creative exploration: Using playful and creative methods during counselling may open up more healing possibilities.

Balancing and soothing: There's no need for unnecessary distress. We can make working with difficult experiences more bearable.

Key topics (... the ingredients)

Relating: When therapy helps us get on better with ourselves, this may help improve key relationships in our lives.

Thinking: The stories we tell ourselves and believe profoundly shape our world. 

Feelings and needs: Time spent connecting with our emotions and unpacking the messages they contain is time well spent.

Doing: Yes, we're both human beings and human doings.

Embodying: Our brain and body are deeply connected by the nervous system. This holistic view opens up therapeutic options.