HOW I WORK
Are you wondering what I will do or say as your counsellor..?
My approach to counselling is to accept wherever you are at the moment, find out where you want to be, figure out what's holding you back, and highlight the ways you can achieve your goals, using your own strengths.
This is a 'person-centred', solution-focussed approach that concentrates on your own unique story, and how you can continue to write it as you go along. I have had training in a variety of modalities. Person-centred counselling aims to work out what is best for you, as opposed to using a formulaic 'treatment'.
Sometimes I might offer some tried-and-true techniques to help with a particular problem. Some examples include:
- Relaxation Exercises
- 'Psychoeducation', to help you develop new relational and behavioural skills
- 'Cognitive Behaviour Therapy', to help shift the beliefs or attitudes that are no longer helping you live your life
- 'Here and Now' discussions, that use counselling conversations as a practice for real life
- 'Interviewing', to invite you to consider altering the habits that harm yourself or others
- 'Sandplay Therapy', to help you explore your unconscious world
Each of these can give you tools for coping with your problems. You can choose whatever works best for you.
If your life has become difficult due to stress or trauma, we can develop skills and strategies for staying calm and strong in the face of whatever it is that 'triggers' you. When you can manage your feelings better, we'll work at understanding how those triggers gain power over you - and then you can take that power back!
PSYCHOLOGIST, PSYCHIATRIST, PSYCHOTHERAPIST OR COUNSELLOR?
Counselling is like short- to medium-term psychotherapy
Psychology, psychiatry and counselling are different professions.
Psychologists are experts in well-known patterns of behaviours, thoughts and emotions, and they can diagnose mental illnesses.
Psychiatrists specialise in the medical treatment of mental illnesses, and in Australia they can prescribe medications.
Counsellors like me will generally use 'talk therapy' to help you figure out how you can improve your life. This can be helpful, whether you are in good mental health or not.
Counselling provides some of the time, space and support to talk through what's going on in your life. It is often seen as a more 'human' way of supporting you to change what you want to be different. Working together with you, a counsellor can help to formulate strategies for coping and improving your quality of life.
Psychotherapy is like counselling, but longer-term. This moves beyond problem-solving and begins to help you explore the bigger picture of who you are and what life is all about... I have several long-term clients with whom I feel honoured to do this work.
Are you needing urgent assistance?
If you are having a mental health crisis right now, it might be best to access 24 hour support by calling:
- Mental Health Hotline on 1800 011 511 (in NSW), or
- Suicide Callback Service on 1300 659 467
IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME?
What to expect...
There's no formula for how counselling works because everyone's situation is different.
It makes sense for us to get to know each other a bit first, and look at what is happening in your life generally.
Our first phone consultation will involve talking about why you've decided to reach out for counselling assistance. I might ask a few brief questions to help figure out how we might work together.
As a counsellor, I can listen to your story and ask questions aimed at coaching you to become more mindful of how your thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviour maintain the patterns in your life. The real work of making your life the way you want it to be is largely up to you.
It's quite common to feel strong emotions or worry about what will happen once you make the decision to open up your life for examination.
Sometimes it's hard to start talking. I don't like to rush people, but I also know that inaction rarely leads to life-long change. So I might offer you a gentle challenge to think creatively about new ways to improve your situation.
You might be back on track after two or three sessions, or you might need more time to deal with the big stuff. Many people just want to change one or two problem behaviours, and this can sometimes be achieved in as little as 6 sessions.
You might prefer to take your time unpacking everything. How long you do counselling for is up to you.
My sessions are usually one hour long but often the first meeting goes a bit longer, at no extra cost.
I look forward to hearing from you!