About Counselling
Counselling provides a safe place to explore personal issues in the attentive presence of a trained professional. It can sometimes be valuable to talk to someone completely separate from our everyday lives. We may need a level of objectivity and support we feel is inappropriate to ask of our immediate circle of family and friends.
Counselling can be used for different purposes:
- To voice troubling thoughts and feelings
- To gain insight into problems of mood
- To address self-defeating patterns of behaviour
- To face our losses and engage with life's transitions
- To identify our options when the pressures become overwhelming
- To recover our balance after a personal crisis
A counsellor's role is not to judge or advise, but to offer intelligent listening and empathetic understanding within an accepting approach. Counselling may suggest a fresh angle on an old issue, pinpoint an area for particular attention, or highlight a previously unseen connection between elements of your experience and personality. The aim is to help you gain the clarity and confidence to make your own choices and resolve your concerns according to your personal priorities and situation.
As you decide your future direction, you may want to change some aspects of your life. You may recognise the need to come to terms with what cannot be changed. Counselling can help you discern the difference between these two possibilities, and support you in working them through.