Psychotherapy / Counselling
We work with each individual, family or couple in a collaborate way, tailoring our approach to focus on understanding and meeting the needs of each person. We are all qualified and experienced in a variety of concerns and issues, including but not limited to:
Anxiety
Depression
Stress
Bereavement
Addiction
Trauma
PTSD
Personality Disorders
Low Self Esteem
Body Dysmorphia
Self Harm
Family Trauma
Young People
What is Counselling?
Counselling involves talking with a trained professional (either a counsellor or psychotherapist) to explore specific aspects of your life that are causing problems with the aim of making things better.
We offer a range of types of counselling including person-centred, Solution-Focused, DBT, humanistic, psychotherapy and Systemic therapy. We each have our own unique way of working with clients and this will be determined by the approach or approaches we are trained in, our background and experience.
Counselling is usually considered to be a fairly short term therapy and you may expect to come for between six and twelve weekly sessions depending on the issues you are experiencing. After six sessions your counsellor would usually want to review with you how things are going.
How is Psychotherapy different?
Psychotherapy is similar to counselling in that the client works with a qualified psychotherapist to address specific issues or difficulties that are causing them distress or issues. However, psychotherapy is a deeper process where we explore patterns or themes.
The psychotherapist will then work with you to address these patterns or themes and how they link to things about you such as your upbringing, the challenges you’ve had through life & your coping strategies. The aim is to enable change by understanding why things are going wrong and exploring different ways of thinking and behaving.
As psychotherapy is a deeper process, you may need to meet regularly with your therapist for up to a year (or more). It is important to find a practitioner style that works for you and someone you feel ‘safe’ with.
People often start psychotherapy realising they have deeper issues that need exploring. However, it is just as usual for people to begin counselling and then realise there are underlying ‘patterns’ and ‘themes’ in their lives, which may be better addressed using psychotherapy. No matter how you start the process, you would usually be able to continue with the same practitioner. Our counselling team are highly trained and able to undertake both counselling and psychotherapy with clients.
Prior to the first session you will have been sent forms to complete to save time. If you need help with these we will quickly go through them when you arrive, particularly the informed consent. For the 50 minutes booked you will have the sole attention of the therapist; unfortunately if you arrive later than expected, I’m afraid we must still finish on time to be fair to other clients.