People often ask, 'do you think I need counselling?' This in itself is a very difficult question to answer. If someone tells you 'you need counselling' it can make
you feel that your problems must be really bad. However, the decision to see a
private counsellor is always a matter of personal choice rather than
something you 'must' do.
A better question is, 'might I benefit
from trying counselling?' Many people, whatever their situation, have
found counselling to be extremely helpful. It tends to be more useful, more
effective and more successful if you have chosen to come because it
feels like the right thing for you, rather than someone else telling you
to go because you 'need to have' counselling.
Counselling might be beneficial for you if:
Counselling does not claim to be the answer to all difficulties, but it does offer you the opportunity to explore different ways of looking at your life. Counselling is a way of giving you time and space to discover more effective and rewarding ways of living or coping. As your counsellor, I will listen to you in a private and confidential setting. I do not offer advice. Rather, I offer you my full attention, respect and a commitment to supporting you in developing your own solutions, insights, awareness and answers to the issues that are important to you.
These are just some of the areas of counselling that I have experience in working with, as every client raises different issues and challenges it would be impossible too list them all.
There are lots of practising counsellors to choose from and it is really important that you find one that feels the right fit for you. You need someone with whom you feel you can work, someone who will really listen to you and who will do their very best to understand your world.
I realise that taking that first step towards help by contacting a
counsellor can be daunting and may cause feelings of anxiety,
particularly if you haven't had counselling before. The reality is that
we all need help at some time, so I would encourage you to make that
first step if you can.
If you feel I might be the counsellor for you, please send me an email at [email protected],
and we can arrange a free 20-minute video call to meet one another
and see if it feels right. We can discuss
what counselling will involve, how we might work together, as well as
what you want help with.
This initial consultation is free and
there is no obligation for you to set up sessions.
If you decide that
you wish to proceed, we can then set up your first session and take it
from there. If you decide to start counselling, my aim will be to put you at ease
in the first session. We will discuss key aspects of the therapeutic
relationship, for example, maintaining confidentiality, as well as
exploring in more detail what it is that's brought you to therapy. If you know what it is you'd like to achieve out of counselling we
will explore that too. If you don't know, that's absolutely fine;
clients don't always explicitly know what they want to achieve.
Sometimes it's as simple as 'feeling normal again'. If there are lots of different things going on in your life, we can
look at what you might want to work on first.
In person counselling in a comfortable modern environment.
These sessions would take place in offices based in
central Lincoln.
I
offer online sessions from the comfort of your own home, allowing you the benefit of flexibility of time and location. This
enables me to offer counselling sessions throughout the UK.