Talking to someone who gives you their total attention and empathy can help you see yourself and your situation more clearly. It can release you from being alone with difficult or confusing thoughts and feelings. Seeing them in a new light can clarify them and help you see a way through, and may enable you to work out what—and how—you want to change.
It may also help you come to terms and cope more effectively with those things you cannot change.
In counselling, the processes of talking through sensitive or painful issues can help restore a sense of order in our minds. This can significantly reduce anxiety levels. Having things clarified by a skilled listener can in itself bring relief and a fresh understanding. Hearing the therapist's perspective can also make us think about ourselves and our situation differently.
In psychotherapy, a more sustained process of addressing underpinning patterns of behaviours, feelings and thoughts is appropriate. This may include a detailed exploration of thoughts that cause negative emotional states and reactions. Understanding and seeing these patterns may show us different ways of relating, and reducing reactivity.
In the safety of the therapeutic relationship we therefore have a rare chance to understand ourselves better. Such work can give us important choices in how to be and behave differently. It may lead to more satisfactory and constructive ways of relating to others, and with ourselves.
As a psychotherapist I have training & experience in the following areas:
- Abuse
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Different forms and experience of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Personality disorders, including, for example, emotional stability disorder
- Relationship difficulties
- Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
The website How Can Counselling Help me? shows how counselling helps address different issues.
How long does counselling or psychotherapy go on for?
Around 50% of the clients I work with complete between 5–18 sessions. This can be regarded as short to medium term therapy.
About 50% of the people I work with will have upwards of 20 sessions, sometimes working for over a year or more, which can be regarded as long-term therapy.
In addition to regular feedback in each session, periodic reviews take place every 5-6 sessions to assess progress. This allows the course of therapy to be checked and discussed openly so that both the client and counsellor know where the therapy is going and what the goals are in the process.