What is counselling?
Often called a 'talking therapy', counselling provides an opportunity to discuss issues face-to-face with a competent and qualified professional. Talking to friends can help, but sometimes that's not enough. Close friends and family are often too involved in our lives to provide objective help. A sympathetic and trained listener can guide you towards the core issues behind the problem, and support you to find a way forward.
Why would I need counselling?
You may be in a crisis of some sort - suffering a bereavement, the break-up of a close relationship, or a serious illness, for example. Or you may realise that life is not all it could be, and you're tired of carrying around feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or sadness. Maybe you're suffering from stress and want to learn to relax more. Perhaps you simply feel a lack of fulfilment in your life. Whatever your situation, talking to someone can make a real difference.
How can counselling help?
Counselling is proven way of understanding ourselves better. This is the first step towards making changes in life and moving on. It also helps us to manage the complex, challenging feelings that often sabotage our attempts at change.
Uncovering hidden potential
Many of us deny the existence of our more desirable qualities - our capacity for love, altruism, achievement, appreciation of beauty, joy - yet all of these are aspects of the personality which may emerge, paradoxically, in times of crisis. Counselling is not simply about negativity - it's a process that can uncover hidden potential.
Looking for meaning
Many people today are looking not just for solutions to their problems, but for meaning as well. Counselling doesn't impose any view of what life is all about, but it may help you discover what life means to you. And meaning - or discovering a purpose - is often what helps to make more sense of crisis and pain.
When there is no meaning
Of course, sometimes the pain is too deep for it to make any sense at all. Even then, talking can bring relief - the counselling room becomes a safe haven where troubles can be shared with someone who listens and accepts, without judgement.
An inner world at war
Often, you won't know why you feel such conflict within yourself. There are different factions of your personality at war with others, and all you know for certain is that it's confusing and sometimes painful. By taking a closer look at these parts of yourself, you can begin to understand yourself better, and make changes.
The freedom to choose
Better understanding often leads to another important realisation - that you have the freedom to choose. Far from being at the mercy of external circumstances or inner conflicts, you have an innate capacity to direct your own life.
The courage to change
Strange as it may sound, coming to terms with issues can be quite a traumatic process. If you hold negative beliefs about yourself or your life, letting go of them and allowing a different reality to emerge can be quite hard. Counselling supports you through this process and helps you find the courage to change.
Often called a 'talking therapy', counselling provides an opportunity to discuss issues face-to-face with a competent and qualified professional. Talking to friends can help, but sometimes that's not enough. Close friends and family are often too involved in our lives to provide objective help. A sympathetic and trained listener can guide you towards the core issues behind the problem, and support you to find a way forward.
Why would I need counselling?
You may be in a crisis of some sort - suffering a bereavement, the break-up of a close relationship, or a serious illness, for example. Or you may realise that life is not all it could be, and you're tired of carrying around feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or sadness. Maybe you're suffering from stress and want to learn to relax more. Perhaps you simply feel a lack of fulfilment in your life. Whatever your situation, talking to someone can make a real difference.
How can counselling help?
Counselling is proven way of understanding ourselves better. This is the first step towards making changes in life and moving on. It also helps us to manage the complex, challenging feelings that often sabotage our attempts at change.
Uncovering hidden potential
Many of us deny the existence of our more desirable qualities - our capacity for love, altruism, achievement, appreciation of beauty, joy - yet all of these are aspects of the personality which may emerge, paradoxically, in times of crisis. Counselling is not simply about negativity - it's a process that can uncover hidden potential.
Looking for meaning
Many people today are looking not just for solutions to their problems, but for meaning as well. Counselling doesn't impose any view of what life is all about, but it may help you discover what life means to you. And meaning - or discovering a purpose - is often what helps to make more sense of crisis and pain.
When there is no meaning
Of course, sometimes the pain is too deep for it to make any sense at all. Even then, talking can bring relief - the counselling room becomes a safe haven where troubles can be shared with someone who listens and accepts, without judgement.
An inner world at war
Often, you won't know why you feel such conflict within yourself. There are different factions of your personality at war with others, and all you know for certain is that it's confusing and sometimes painful. By taking a closer look at these parts of yourself, you can begin to understand yourself better, and make changes.
The freedom to choose
Better understanding often leads to another important realisation - that you have the freedom to choose. Far from being at the mercy of external circumstances or inner conflicts, you have an innate capacity to direct your own life.
The courage to change
Strange as it may sound, coming to terms with issues can be quite a traumatic process. If you hold negative beliefs about yourself or your life, letting go of them and allowing a different reality to emerge can be quite hard. Counselling supports you through this process and helps you find the courage to change.
