Counselling
The counselling approaches below may be used separately or integrated into one approach. The right approach for you may depend on the issues you want to explore in your counselling or your personality/preferred way of working through emotional issues.
In your first session we discuss the counselling agreement and assess together which counselling approach may work best for you. This also give you opportunity to decide if I am the right counsellor for you. To find out more about the approaches I practice in please read below, call me for a chat or to arrange a free 15 min consultation on 07305 813 661 or reach out via the contact section.
To explore session prices and lengths please click here.
Person-Centred Therapy
"When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he (they) or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for.
The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance...provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another."
Carl Rogers
Person-Centred Therapy was developed by Carl Rogers, born 1902. The model values the client as the centre of the therapeutic process and the expert of their own experiences.
It focuses on the client's ability to self-heal and grow personally, when provided with the appropriate and necessary therapeutic conditions.
It is a non-judgemental approach where the client leads the therapy and identifies what feeling, situation, memory or obstacle is hurting them the most and affecting their functioning or enjoyment of life.
It involves the counsellor working to see the client's experiences through their eyes, striving to understand what the client is experiencing and to value the client, through showing the empathy and unconditional positive regard the counsellor feels for them.
Person-centred therapy can be effective for a range of emotional issues, including but not restricted to, bereavement, loss, stress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and adjusting to change.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based contextual cognitive behavioural intervention developed to help people lead meaningful, valued lives and experience greater psychological flexibility. The model integrates well with the person-centred approach.
ACT compassionately helps clients identify and own their values, identify the behaviours they want to change and learn strategies and actions to make those changes.
ACT encourages a mindfulness approach of contact with the present moment and making space for uncomfortable or painful feelings, rather than avoiding or fighting them.
This leaves more energy and focus for clients to give to living a life that still moves in the direction of personal values. ACT involves experiential exercises which we do in sessions to help formulate a plan of action for outside of sessions. It can also involve strategies or exercises to try between sessions.
ACT can be effective for a range of emotional and behavioural issues, including but not restricted to stress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, work-related stress, burnout and dealing with physical health issues.
Imago Relationship Therapy
"Being present and connecting through relationship is ultimately what transforms both partners, not attempting to change themselves or their partner as separate individuals."
Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt
Imago Relationship Therapy involves learning to use a safe dialogue structure for two partners to connect without conflict or defensiveness.
Imago theory values the importance of relationship and interaction, exploring how these can help individuals to experience therapeutic change, which in turn benefits the quality of relational experience.
A zero negativity process is engaged during the sessions. We still acknowledge difficulties and issues while focusing on what the clients want the relationship to look like rather than spiralling further into what it currently is.
The affirmation process used in Imago is a positive replacement for criticism, encouraging relaxed curiosity within the relationship.
Imago theory teaches that we enter relationships wanting to finish childhood, to restore the ruptures of connection we experienced as children, whether these were minimal or enduring. We subconsciously look for the traits of our caregivers in our partners, becoming defensive and unhappy when they don't meet our needs or heal the ruptures of the past.
Just as Carl Rogers believed the client could use the counselling relationship to self-heal, Imago believes the relationship with our partner can facilitate our own self-healing as well as our partner's. The Imago therapist sees the relationship between a couple as the client and will celebrate and encourage that connection throughout therapy.