Having counselling or psychotherapy gives you a space in which you can reflect on your life and any difficulties you are experiencing. As a therapist, my aim is to support you to recognise how you are feeling and gain some understanding of what you need. Sometimes there are changes you need to make in your life, and I can help you work out your next steps. At other times there is nothing to be done and it is more important to explore ways of making peace with your current circumstances or events from the past.
In counselling, I listen with openness and curiosity, genuinely interested in how life is for you. By listening well, reflecting back what I hear and offering new perspectives, I aim to help you know and understand yourself better. In this way you will find it easier to make choices that may bring more ease and happiness. Counselling can be either short-term (a few sessions) or longer term.
In psychotherapy, we may explore activities that draw more directly on the unconscious. In this way we connect with the deeper, wiser self within, beyond the conditioning and adaptations we have all made in order to survive in this world. Psychotherapy would be a longer process, with a commitment to working weekly, for at least a few months.