Counselling
My job is to imagine the widening of the unfamiliar and also the widening ache of it; to anticipate the ironic question: how did we find ourselves here? My job is to untangle the tangled, to unworry the concerned, to guide you out from cul-de-sacs into which you may have wrongly turned
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion – Kei Miller
Working together
I like to meet with prospective clients and talk about why you are thinking of having counselling - and why now.
The relationship is a central part of the counselling process so it is useful to chat before we commit to working together. I offer an opportunity to have a conversation to see if I can help and if we are a good fit. If we are happy to proceed, then we can discuss the best way forward – working together for either short or long term counselling.
I feel that it is important to have a proper ending to our work together when the time is right – this is something that is often missing in our lives and is a really useful experience.
My sessions are 50 minutes and I charge £70 for individuals and £95 for couples, or £140 for an extended session (1.5).
Counselling Approach
Although I am an integrative practitioner, which means I draw on a variety of theoretical approaches in my client work, I am at heart a humanist.
I see the uniqueness of every individual and everyone’s innate capacity to grow emotionally and psychologically. I am passionate about helping you make sense of your experiences, the stories you tell yourself, the patterns you may repeat even though you know they are not helpful.
I provide a space for my clients to explore their own thoughts and feelings, and guide you to work towards your own solutions.
I am curious, warm, open and attentive, and I encourage my clients to be curious about themselves. I work in a relational way, which means I actively engage with my clients in our work together. I hold clear therapeutic boundaries.
Individual Counselling
Counselling is a unique relationship where the counsellor is there just for you, to help you feel safe, seen and really heard.
The themes that my clients bring include low mood, unfulfilling relationships, loss and transitions, health concerns and, particularly since the pandemic, ADHD in adults.
Low mood can include stress, anxiety, depression, lack of joy and burnout
Unfulfilling relationships can be with a partner, the family, at work with colleagues or career, and also with the self
Loss and transitions can include grief and bereavement, miscarriage and infertility, redundancy and retirement, empty nest, menopause, meaning and purpose, the time around the 0 birthdays
Health concerns can include injury, insomnia or poor sleep, a diagnosis, life changing and life limiting illnesses, addiction, trauma and health anxiety
ADHD has become very present in my client work particularly since the pandemic. I am working with adults both pre and post diagnosis
If you are affected by any of these, I may be able to help.
Couples Counselling
"Love is a verb, not a permanent state of enthusiasm"
Esther Perel
Couples counselling can be helpful to explore many different aspects of the relationship such as communication difficulties, conflict, infidelity, parenting styles, raising children, different values, attitudes to money, blended families or managing the ending of the relationship.
Couples counselling can be a safe and supportive space to explore shifts that can occur, such as falling out of love, becoming like friends, loss of physical and emotional intimacy, opening up the relationship.
This can be a really useful place to have conversations that tend not to go well, with a third party present who is not involved. Couples counselling can be helpful at the beginning of the relationship, before entering into a long term commitment or moving in together, and at the end of relationship.
Couples counselling can also be useful as a relationship MOT; we often get stuck in patterns of interaction or behaviour that are not helpful.