About Therapy.
“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his power.”
What is Therapy?
Whether you are experiencing a problem for the first time or have been struggling with long-term difficulties, it can be of real benefit to talk with a counsellor. Some people fear that this is relinquishing responsibility for themselves, but that is not the case. Counselling is a collaborative process, in which both you and the counsellor work together to develop a greater understanding of you. It is not like going to a doctor where you describe your symptoms, then await treatment from the doctor. In counselling you are not passive, instead you are an active participant: you can decide which aspects of your life you most want to focus on.
Talking with a counsellor gives you the privacy and opportunity to express your innermost thoughts and feelings and, through this process, to come to recognise some of your underlying assumptions and beliefs which influence the way you see yourself and your relationship to others. Essentially, counselling helps you to discover how you interpret the world and your place in it, and to see how aspects of these interpretations throw up difficulties and conflicts for you.
Exploring your difficulties will often take you back to your childhood. This is not to attribute blame, but to understand what influences helped shape you in your early years of development, and which still live on in you today.
I will give you the time to work at your own pace and will help you make discoveries about yourself. These discoveries give you a new perspective on yourself, and even a small shift in perspective can make the view very different. Through this process of exploration you can gain greater freedom and a range of possibilities in your life and relationships.
Who can benefit from Therapy?
People have come to me for counselling for a variety of reasons including:
Depression and feeling life is pointless and useless
Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks and PTSD
Trying to please others and feeling invisible and unappreciated
Feeling inadequate in spite of impressive achievements, sometimes called "Imposter syndrome"
Eating disorders
The legacy of childhood sexual abuse
Relationship difficulties
Coping with older age
The turmoil of being an adolescent & trying to find your place in life
The impact of being adopted
How can Therapy Help?
Counselling and Therapy can help you to:
Clarify and articulate what you are thinking and feeling
Discover how your past influences & continues to affect your present life
Learn what part you play in your relationships to others and the world
Confront painful and difficult feelings
Prioritise what is most important to you, so you can look forward with greater confidence.
Confidentiality and code of ethics
Everything you talk about to me I will treat as strictly confidential, that will include members of your family who may want to talk to me about you. The only exception to confidentiality would be if I had grounds to believe that you were a serious harm to yourself or to someone else. In this latter rare occasion I would contact your GP after discussing it with you and getting your agreement.
I subscribe to the Code of Conduct of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) which has a procedure for handling any complaint.
Where do you offer Therapy?
On Wednesdays I work at 335, City Road, London EC1V 1LJ where I see people face to face. I have the consulting room from 2pm until late. On Mondays I work on line using zoom all day and evenings, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I work during the daytime.