Counselling
Counselling can be difficult to imagine if you have not done it before.
At its simplest, we meet regularly and talk about what is happening in your life. That might be something going on now or something from the past, a relationship, a decision, a feeling you cannot quite make sense of, or a pattern you keep finding yourself in despite knowing it is not helping.
I will listen, but I will not just sit silently while you work everything out for yourself. I will ask questions, offer thoughts and notice things that we might want to look at together.
You do not need to know what to talk about every week, or to be particularly good at talking about yourself. You can get stuck, change the subject, disagree with me or not know what you think yet.
That is all part of the work.
Working together
What might change?
That depends on what brings you to counselling and what you want from it.
Understanding can matter enormously. Seeing yourself or a situation differently can change a great deal. But we can also know ourselves very well and still keep doing the same thing.
Counselling gives us somewhere to explore those patterns and whether there might be more choice.
You might find yourself responding differently in a relationship, trusting yourself more, or discovering that something you once needed to cope is no longer quite so necessary.
You are part of the process
You know your life in a way I never can. I bring my training, experience and another perspective. Between us, we work out where to focus and whether the work is useful to you.
If I misunderstand something, you can tell me. If something I say does not fit, we can look at it. And if your reasons for coming to counselling change as we go, the work can change with them.
Where do we start?
I offer a free 15-minute call before arranging a first session. It gives you a chance to tell me a little about what has brought you here, ask questions and get a sense of whether you would like us to work together.
If we decide to meet, the first few sessions give us time to understand more about what you are looking for and where we might begin.