Counselling or psychotherapy can offer a safe and supportive place for you to talk in confidence about issues or difficulties that are troubling you. It can provide you with the chance to explore various aspects of your life, which may be feelings, thoughts and/or behaviour. A professional, trained listener may be able to offer help that is not always available from friends or family members. Acceptance and respect for the client and a non-judgmental attitude are essentials for a counsellor.
People come to counselling for different reasons. You may have a crisis or particular problem that seems overwhelming, or you may feel that you need some time and space to talk about feelings such as confusion, uncertainty, loneliness and isolation that are difficult to talk about anywhere else. It could be that you have noticed that the same difficulties repeat themselves, and you want to reach an understanding of this and think about making some changes. You may also be interested in doing some exploratory work leading to increased self-awareness.
A counsellor will not make decisions for you but try to help you to explore your feelings and thoughts and can help you look at the options open to you, to enable you to find a way forward through your difficulties.
The initial session usually takes the form of a discussion about what has brought you to counselling, to explore your hopes from counselling and offers a chance for you to decide if you want to go ahead in working with me.
Children and sometimes adolescents do not always find it easy to put their feelings and thoughts into words and often it’s their behaviour that communicates that something is wrong. A counselling relationship gives them the opportunity to find a means of expressing themselves that is appropriate to their age and developmental stage, in a safe and confidential space. This could be by using art, puppets, drama, stories, sandtrays and play as well as, or instead o,f the more usual talking type of therapy.
I have worked as a counsellor in nine different schools (primary and secondary) and am experienced at working with children and young people who have difficulties with bereavement and loss, anger, anxiety, bullying, family breakdown/separating parents, health difficulties within the family, low confidence and poor self-esteem as well as neglect, abuse, including domestic abuse, and attachment issues. I also have experience of working with young people with ASD.
Depending on your child's age, the first session might be with a parent or carer, so that we can discuss background to your child’s situation and whether counselling might be the right choice. There is no obligation to continue after this if we decide another approach might be more helpful, but I welcome initial enquiries.
Parents or carers will need to sign a consent form to enable me to work with their children.
I offer clinical supervision to therapists and consultative supervision to other professionals, especially those working with children and families, such as school staff and social workers. See more
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