The Theories I Use

Counselling can provide many benefits and each benefit will be individual to your situation. I am a person centred counsellor incorporating trauma theory into my work when needed.  I also use psycho-education if it is appropriate.

What Does This Mean?

Each counselling session with me will give you the opportunity to explore anything which feels important to you in a confidential setting without fear of being judged.  I aim to understand what you are experiencing from your perspective, supporting you to explore your thoughts and how you feel.  This enables you to gain clarity, to decide on any possible changes you want to make and to be supported whilst you implement those changes.

Trauma Theory

If you have had a traumatic experience at any time in your life, I can support you to recover from your experiences safely, my work being underpinned by knowledge and understanding of trauma related situations.  Obviously not everyone has experienced trauma and therefore I only incorporate this if necessary to your situation.

Psycho-education

If appropriate and helpful to you, I will also support you to understand how and why you may be reacting to certain situations or experiences by giving you basic information based on neuroscience.  This can help you to make sense of your situation.  An understanding of why you are responding in a certain way can support you to reduce feelings such as self-blame, shame and guilt.

Incorporating Creativity

There may be times when talking about your experiences and memories may feel too uncomfortable, daunting or difficult or you may simply prefer to use creativity to express your situation. You may also be drawn to combining talking and creative expression together.    If any of this resonates with you,  I have a number of creative tools that we can use to help you to explore your thoughts, feelings and experiences.  This can include the use of pens, paper, images, cards and writing.

Sand Tray Therapy

Using a sand tray is a creative process where miniature figures and objects are chosen and used to build a scene within a sand filled wooden tray.  It can help you to explore memories and experiences that may feel too uncomfortable or challenging to express verbally or it can be used in a way that helps you to access and express your understanding of yourself, your relationships,  your world and your experiences.

I have a sand tray in my office which you may like to use in every session or you may choose to use it during one session only, incorporating it with talking therapy or other creative processes.

Initial Contact

I am happy for you to initially contact me by email or telephone.  I will do my best to answer any questions you might have to enable you to decide if you wish to make an appointment for us to have our first session together.  If I am unable to answer your call, please do feel free to leave a message on my confidential voicemail and I will call you back.  At this time, it would be useful for you to confirm in your message whether or not I am able to leave a message for you.

If you prefer contact by email, I will reply to your enquiry within 48 hours, but often I will get back to you much sooner than this.  If you haven’t received anything within this time, please do check your spam mailbox.

First Appointment

If you decide you wish to make a first appointment, we will arrange a mutually convenient day and time to meet.  Each counselling session is usually one hour long but I advise that you allow up to an hour and a quarter for our initial appointment as this gives you the chance to actually experience a full hour long session whilst also being able to ask questions and find out more about how I work.

At the end of this session, you will be able to decide if you wish to continue working with me.  If you do, we will make another appointment.  At this point, we can either agree to work on a time limited basis whereby we agree a total number of sessions and concentrate on a particular issue you have or we can work on an open ended basis, allowing for more in-depth exploration and growth.  Whichever you choose, we will undertake regular reviews to ensure you are getting the most from your sessions.

Continuation Therapy Sessions

Sessions will take place either weekly or fortnightly.  Usually we will agree the same appointment day and time each week.  However, I am aware that sometimes this is not possible due to changing shift patterns or childminding availability.  In these cases, I will do my best to accommodate  flexible appointments wherever possible (if you can provide a number of possible days/time, we will have the best chance of being able to find a mutually convenient appointment).

Our therapy sessions can continue for as long as you require them.

Ending Therapy

You are able to stop your counselling sessions when you feel you are ready to do so.  We will usually discuss and work towards a planned ending in a timescale suitable for you.

If in the future you wish to have more sessions or you would like a one-off appointment to help with a specific problem, you are able to contact me and we can arrange an appointment that suits us both.

If you think that counselling can help you or you would like to find out more, please contact me:

Header photo by Sean Paul Kinnear on Unsplash