I've lived a bit and have lived experience.
I've been around many of the common blocks and pitfalls that most of us encounter somewhere along the way. That doesn't mean I'll know exactly what it's like to be you, but it does inform the way I listen, the questions I ask and my willingness to stay with you wherever you might be.
There isn't much that can't be talked about usefully.
You don't have to arrive knowing exactly what's wrong, and you certainly don't have to know how to put it right. Sometimes simply having the opportunity to say what you really think and feel can help you begin to see the wood for the trees. And sometimes recognising that you have a problem is a good place to start.
Problems are opportunities to explore solutions.
We can spend a long time knowing that something isn't right without knowing what to do about it. Counselling can help us understand the problem, but understanding alone doesn't necessarily change anything.
You lead the way
I believe counselling is a conversation. You bring your experience and we can explore what might need to change, with the benefit of my more than twenty-five years' experience.
I can't tell you who you should be or where your life should go. But equally, I won't always sit silently. I can help widen your perspective, ask probing questions and challenge what appears to be blocking your progress. Sometimes I'll lead and sometimes I'll follow. But the direction remains yours.
You don't have to pretend or stop yourself from naming the hard thoughts and feelings you may never have shared before. You might find that we have many things in common as people dealing with the stresses and strains of modern life.
We can talk about the good things as well as the bad and bring some balance to what might have become a skewed sense of things.
Experience matters
I've been a counsellor for over twenty-five years and am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
My work includes extensive experience of compulsive gambling, addiction and recovery. In addition, I work more broadly with anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties and those issues that can leave us feeling stuck or dissatisfied with life.
My approach is integrative and primarily humanistic, although I can work in a more directive way when that's useful. It's led by you, the client, and is unique to you.
A mindfulness approach
My work is also informed by mindfulness and the principles of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. That's not a straitjacket or a prescription for how you should live. It's about developing greater awareness, giving you more agency and choice.
I've experienced how potent therapy can be. Not because talking magically transforms everything, but because understanding ourselves differently can allow us to begin living differently.
Maybe you've become used to waking up believing you have problems. Perhaps you could begin waking up believing there are possibilities.
Therapy can be difficult, but the rewards can be considerable. And who knows what you might discover along the way that enhances your life.
Ultimately, counselling isn't about becoming the person somebody else thinks you should be.
It's about becoming more fully yourself — and perhaps discovering parts of yourself you didn't realise were there.