Introduction to Counselling:
For many of us the way that we think and feel at any given moment is a response to our present circumstances set against a backdrop of how we view the world and our place within it. This viewpoint is the result of our responses to everything that we have experienced. This is why the same event can affect people very differently.
From an early age we try to make sense of what we see around us. While this is rooted in our own thoughts and feelings, it can also be heavily influenced by the behaviour of those around us. We work hard to find ways to cope with whatever life throws at us. For many of us this includes developing various strategies for protecting ourselves from the real or perceived threats we encounter along the way. We construct an identity for ourselves that we continue to adapt in response to life's challenges.
For many of us these ways of coping can remain long after their usefulness has ended. We can get stuck in old habits. What was once a suit of armour that protected us becomes a straight-jacket that holds us back. Some of us are able to travel lightly through life, but others accumulate negative experiences that begin to weigh us down and prevent us from growing into who we would like to be.
Counselling can help us unpick the ties that bind our present actions to our past experiences and explore the beliefs and behaviours that may not be serving us as well as they did. Counselling can give us back the freedom to choose how we wish to live in the present without it being dictated by our past.
Counsellors are able to identify patterns and make links between thoughts and feelings that are not always apparent to us as we experience them. During the course of the therapy the focus of the sessions may vary between an exploration of background events and experiences and detailed examination of specific incidents. However, for those practising person-centred counselling the choice of what is talked about remains firmly with the client.
Counselling can help people who are experiencing extremely difficult emotions. However it also has a role to play for people who are not satisfied with the way their lives are turning out and wish to make changes.
From an early age we try to make sense of what we see around us. While this is rooted in our own thoughts and feelings, it can also be heavily influenced by the behaviour of those around us. We work hard to find ways to cope with whatever life throws at us. For many of us this includes developing various strategies for protecting ourselves from the real or perceived threats we encounter along the way. We construct an identity for ourselves that we continue to adapt in response to life's challenges.
For many of us these ways of coping can remain long after their usefulness has ended. We can get stuck in old habits. What was once a suit of armour that protected us becomes a straight-jacket that holds us back. Some of us are able to travel lightly through life, but others accumulate negative experiences that begin to weigh us down and prevent us from growing into who we would like to be.
Counselling can help us unpick the ties that bind our present actions to our past experiences and explore the beliefs and behaviours that may not be serving us as well as they did. Counselling can give us back the freedom to choose how we wish to live in the present without it being dictated by our past.
Counsellors are able to identify patterns and make links between thoughts and feelings that are not always apparent to us as we experience them. During the course of the therapy the focus of the sessions may vary between an exploration of background events and experiences and detailed examination of specific incidents. However, for those practising person-centred counselling the choice of what is talked about remains firmly with the client.
Counselling can help people who are experiencing extremely difficult emotions. However it also has a role to play for people who are not satisfied with the way their lives are turning out and wish to make changes.