Counselling and therapy in North Leeds - promoting insight, change and growth
What are counselling and psychotherapy?
Counselling and psychotherapy are umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies. As a therapist, I am professionally trained to work with you over a period of time to help you develop a better understanding of yourself and of others. I am impartial and will listen to you without judgement and work with your emotions without becoming emotional myself. I won't tell you what to do but I will help you find your own solutions and resolutions – whether for coming to terms with a life event, making effective changes or for learning how to cope.
How can therapy help?
Therapy can be helpful if you’re feeling painful emotions or facing difficult decisions, if you want to improve or change your relationships, or if you’d like to develop a better understanding of yourself or others. Perhaps something unsettling has happened, such as a bereavement, redundancy, divorce or health scare. There may be something in your past that’s not been dealt with and is now interfering with your daily life. Or you may want help to cope with issues such as anxiety, stress or personal problem solving. You may feel isolated and have no one to talk to, but sometimes even those with the most supportive friends and family can find it difficult to explain why they’re feeling anxious or depressed. Or you might just find it easier to talk about personal, family or relationship issues with someone independent. But you don’t have to be in, or on the verge of crisis, before having therapy. You might be feeling dissatisfied with life in general or seeking balance in your life.
What happens in therapy?
Therapy is an opportunity for you to talk about the things that are bothering you. To facilitate this, I offer weekly 50 minute sessions. I don't offer sessions every other week as I feel this interferes with the development of therapeutic relationship and the progress of the therapy generally. In therapy I will offer a safe and confidential space to help you:
- explore emotional problems
- help you make sense of your world
- focus on your thoughts and feelings and what things mean and feel like to you
- help you explore feelings and thoughts to resolve emotional distress
- help you towards a better understanding of yourself and others, which may improve your ability to accept and value yourself and relate to others
What I wont do is:
- tell you what to do
- prescribe drugs – only an appropriate medical practitioner can do this
- offer help with practical problems, such as financial or housing issues
- provide specific information about health-related problems
- meet outside pre-planned sessions
- talk in detail about myself and my issues
Amongst other things the benefits of therapy can include:
- a greater insight into yourself and your problems
- a space in which to talk about the things that are bothering you that you feel unable to share with others
- access to a neutral and impartial space in which to explore thoughts and feelings
- a safe and confidential space in which to evaluate approaches and options for addressing an issue
- the availability of reliable and on-going support to help you address your difficulties
Is therapy for you?
The best way to tell if you want to work with me is to arrange an initial meeting where we can talk about what is bothering and I can learn more about your life to date. It may take a few sessions to establish the focus of the work and for you to decide whether you feel you can work with me and whether I feel I'm the right therapist for you.
Therapy can be an emotionally tough process - sometimes, as people start to really face the issues they're dealing with they can feel more distressed. These feelings usually pass as people work through their issues and of course these feelings can also be explored in the therapy.
