Counselling
Integrative counselling supports the idea that there are many ways in which human psychology can be explored and understood. Counselling and coaching offer a proactive, future-focused approach and a developmental way of working, integrating a range of skills from both modalities as an effective approach for enabling change. The idea of integrating coaching into counselling practice is becoming increasingly popular.
As your therapist, I work with you to make sense of the issues to facilitate and empower power change. I work with various therapeutic models: person-centred, psychodynamic, and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), transactional analysis, and existential therapy combined with the personal consultancy model coaching on behavioural change and forward development.
What issues can counselling help with?
People come to me for help a wide range of issues. Here are a few of the more common difficulties that can be supported through counselling:
Feelings of stress or anxiety
Panic attacks
Relationship problems
Grief, loss or bereavement
Problems with addiction
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Abuse
Depression
Problems with confidence or self-esteem
Anger management
Issues relating to sexuality
Difficulties at work or in retirement
Problems with family or school life
How it works
During our sessions, you can self-explore, recognise patterns, be open to identifying the issues, and set new goals so that you can recognise specific triggers that may cause problems. I tailor your therapy to empower you to practise new behaviours and combined with coaching, work with the new goals to achieve greater harmony within yourself.
Benefits of Integrative Counselling
A key advantage of integrative therapy is its flexibility and focus on the whole of an individual. Integrating different approaches means therapy is tailored to meet various needs and concerns. Integrative psychotherapy techniques can be particularly beneficial if you want to overcome negative patterns of behaviour and effective for other mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, past or current trauma, low self-esteem, grief, and loss.
The Types of Approaches Used
Person-Centred Therapy
Client-centred therapy or person-centred therapy focuses on maximising your ability to find your solutions with the right amount of support from me. It is a non-directive approach requiring you to actively take the reins during each therapy session, allowing you to steer the ship. Based on the theory of Carl Rogers, person-centred therapy is rooted in the belief that the person has all the answers from within to thrive, so the therapist empowers you to find the answers. It's a therapy that comes under the humanistic umbrella, and humanistic psychology believes that we all contain untapped potential.
You decide what to talk about, not the therapist - and your relationship with your therapist is an important part of therapy. It focuses as much on the present and the past - and on a free environment to be you. Person-centred therapy requires me to focus on your needs rather than give an in-depth analysis of your difficulties. I actively listen to you and understand how the world works from your point of view. The goals of this practice include increasing self-awareness, improving your ability to use self-direction to make desired changes, increasing clarity, improving self-esteem and boosting self-confidence.
Person-centred therapy has three core conditions: congruence, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard. As your therapist, congruence means I don't pretend to be all-knowing or superior; empathy means that I work to understand what you have been through and how you see the world; unconditional positive regard (UPR) means accepting and respecting you just as you, without judgement while at the same time holding a vision of your full potential.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is the psychological interpretation of mental and emotional processes. Rooted on the theories developed by Sigmund Freud, it looks at how your unconscious thoughts and perceptions developed throughout your childhood – and how this affects your behaviour and thoughts today.
Unlike other forms of therapy, psychodynamic therapy aims to create fundamental change in your emotional development by helping you understand and resolve your problems by increasing your awareness of your inner self and how this can influence your relationships. As your therapist, I help you to gain insight into your past life and present-day issues by looking at certain factors such as emotions, thoughts, early-life experiences and beliefs.
By recognising recurring patterns, I help you see how to avoid distress or develop defence mechanisms, allowing you to begin changing patterns. I encourage you to speak freely about your emotions, desires, and fears – being open can help reveal vulnerable feelings that might have been pushed out of conscious awareness. Psychodynamic therapy is more focused on your relationship with your external world.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioural therapy works on the way you think and the way you behave. These therapies are more directive and recognise that changing or re-conditioning our thoughts or behaviour can overcome specific problems. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) combines cognitive and behavioural therapies.
As your therapist, I focus on thoughts, emotions, physical feelings and actions so you become aware of how each can affect the other. CBT is useful for dealing with several issues, including depression, anxiety and phobias. There are many benefits of CBT counselling. It helps turn negative thinking into more balanced and positive thoughts for you to take action instead of being constrained in avoidance behaviours and negative self-talk. CBT enables you to stop behaving in ways that make you feel bad and improves your problem-solving skills; it widens your perspective and ability to see options that make you feel better about yourself, your relationships, and the world.
CBT teaches you strategies to manage your mental health for the rest of your life. The core idea behind CBT is that your thoughts and actions create your emotional states. These emotional states lead you to either feel stuck and do nothing or do things you regret. When faced with a difficult situation and having a negative thought, it creates negative feelings and body sensations. These feelings, in turn, push us to make a wrong choice, often creating another negative thought. The cycle continues. With CBT, it is possible to change your thinking and behaviours to stop the negative process. CBT is more present-based, where you touch on your past to understand your thoughts but not to find reasons for everything.
Existential Therapy
An existential approach seeks to help you understand how you are experiencing and dealing with your challenges - empowering you to respond more effectively. As your therapist, I help you find meaning, purpose, and ownership to live a more fulfilling life.
Our behaviours are meaningful, and the more we understand how we behave and what we are doing and feeling, the more we can take ownership and live a life attuned to our fundamental values. Existential therapy focuses on the anxiety that occurs when confronting the conflict inherent in life. I help you focus on personal responsibility for making decisions, and he may integrate some humanistic approaches and techniques.
Many theories are used in existential therapy, but its main principle is that everyone experiences anxiety about their existence. Existential therapy has four key themes often known as pillars - death, meaning, isolation and freedom. These topics cause anxiety, and during our sessions, I guide you to work through these anxieties to help you reach a point of acceptance, enabling you to reach your potential and build a positive future.
Transactional Analysis
Transactional therapy works on the theory that each person has three ego-states: parent, adult and child. These are used along with other critical transactional analysis concepts, tools, and models to analyse how individuals communicate and to identify what interaction is needed for a better outcome. Throughout TA therapy, I work directly on problem-solving behaviours while helping you develop day-to day tools for finding constructive, creative solutions.
The ultimate goal is to ensure you regain absolute autonomy over your life - this autonomy is the recovery of three vital human capacities: spontaneity, awareness, and intimacy. Transactional analysis is a talking therapy, and sessions work to explore your personality and how this has been shaped by experience - particularly those stemming from childhood through skillful questioning and utilising various models, techniques and tools.
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