How Therapy can Help

Over the years I have been involved in counselling and therapy I have seen it work for different reasons.  I worked in a drop-in centre where people could come and talk, even if it was only for 40 minutes and they didn’t return.  Sometimes crisis listening can be very effective because you are speaking to someone impartial and you can get things off your chest in a way that you cannot with friends and family.I have also had clients for short term counselling, usually between 9 to 18 weekly sessions.  The work here focuses on a specific issue such as bereavement or the ending of a relationship.  The counselling can sometimes bring up deeper issues which are pertinent to how the client is feeling in their present situation but which they were much less conscious of. They are often unable to make links   between the past and what is happening in their present.  Quite often clients know when they have gone as far as they are currently able to go in therapy and chose to leave but feel as if the counselling has helped them to unburden themselves but also to take stock and decide what is important for them in the present.

Other clients remain in therapy for several years.  Over the months clients become more conscious of what they are feeling, thinking, saying and doing.  And as the years progress they go even deeper into this knowledge.  This happens because in the therapeutic environment you have the space and time to simply be.  The therapeutic relationship between the client and me is hugely important here and it is my job to create an atmosphere in which you do not feel judged. At the same time I will not collude with you in any distorted views or beliefs you may have. I will be helping you to look at those views and beliefs from every angle.  When you are free to say or think what you need to say or think it can be very liberating and inspiring for you.  I will help guide you to self discover the real you and your potential.  Therapy does not need to be a mystery; you are the one who is the expert on yourself and I can help you find the key to unlocking what, at times, can feel hidden or out of reach.

Picture: Francis Cadell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons