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What is counselling?
What happens when I contact you? What happens at the first session? How long does counselling take? What does counselling involve? What is counselling? In simple terms, counselling involves one person (the counsellor) helping another person (the client) to work through some difficult or painful emotional, behavioural or relationship problem or difficulty. That is the form of individual counselling. It offers a way to gain perspective on your behaviour, emotions and relationships. It provides a means to express your feelings and identify patterns of thinking. It alleviates anxiety, depression and anger in their many forms. It helps develop communication skills for dealing with conflict and frustration. It is a means for addressing pain, working through loss and adding meaning to your life. Counselling is about exploring difficulties you may be having or distress you might be experiencing or dissatisfaction with areas of your life. As a counsellor, I try to understand the difficulties from your point of view and help you see things more clearly. For many people, this leads to positive changes in life and a stronger sense of being able to deal with problems that come up in the future. You might have a clear idea of what you want to talk about and perhaps also what you want to get out of the counselling or you might not know exactly where to start. Our work together might be short term, working towards a specific goal, or longer term, perhaps exploring painful issues that have been there for a long time. What happens when I contact you? If you telephone or leave a telephone number, I can get back to you as soon as I am able by telephone. We could arrange via email a day and time to speak by telephone. We’ll then arrange a time to meet in person for a first session. What happens at the first session? The first session is an opportunity for us to meet and for you to decide if counselling with me is right for you. It is also for me to understand a bit about your situation and get a feel for whether I think counselling with me can help. You''ll have an opportunity to get a feel for the counselling room and see how if feels for you to be talking to me. Hopefully this will help you decide if you want to go ahead with the counselling and we can agree what happens next. How long does counselling take? This depends on you and what is troubling you. Sometimes a few weeks might be enough to help you see a way through a particular issue or problem. For people who perhaps have deeper problems that have been there for a long time, it might take longer to explore concerns. Some people stay in counselling for a year or two, others, even longer. Couple counselling tends to be short-term and focussed (6-12 sessions maximum). If one or both partners has deeper problems or issues to explore, then we may agree to take a break or end the couples counselling so that one or both partners can receive individual help from a counsellor. Then we can continue with the couples counselling again later. I believe it is useful to regularly review how the counselling is going for you, and for you to decide, with my help if you need it, when the time is right to end. What does counselling involve? Counselling involves exploring your problems, worries and concerns in a safe and non-judgemental environment. |