How can Counselling help?
Whether you choose in-person counselling, here in Kingsteignton near Newton Abbot, or online or telephone counselling, you are setting aside quality time for yourself and your mental wellbeing. Just as we may focus on healthy eating and exercising to keep our bodies healthy we should also look after our emotional wellbeing.
If you are on this page the chances are that you are experiencing one or more of the following and considering counselling and/or life coaching as an option.
- Are you feeling overwhelmed - as if your mind is a big ball of string, all tangled up and knotted, and you are struggling to see through the confusing mess?
- Do you no longer recognise the person in the mirror, as you realise you have lost sight of your confident, carefree and happier self?
- Do you feel unworthy, guilty and are self-critical?
- Do you numb yourself to the painful feelings and thoughts by pushing them aside?
Left unattended these negative thoughts can manifest as a prolonged overwhelming sense of helplessness, anxiety, depression, chronic stress and life-limiting illnesses.
So let's breeeeathe!!.... If you have answered "yes" to any of the above, there is a way forward and it's talking to a counsellor or life coach who is impartial, empathic and skilled in helping you to open-up about whatever is on your mind.
Differences between a Counsellor and Life Coach
As a qualified counsellor I am trained in mental health issues and facilitate your self exploration of the destructive thought, emotional and behavioural patterns that are holding you back. My aim is to help you to find coping strategies, that will work for you so you can move forward from these past experiences.
As a qualified life coach my aim is to help you to focus on a new life path, regain your confidence and self-belief and achieve goals that, whilst you were on the destructive cycles, you could only imagine you could do.
In combining these two approaches and skills sets I can help you to accept and cope better with your past and help lay the foundations to change your future.
I come from a place of compassion and openness, believing that you are the expert on your life and therefore unconsciously you have the solutions. It is my role, as your coach and counsellor, to facilitate your self reflection so you can reconnect and trust in your natural resourcefulness and resilience. Often the self awareness that comes about is the nudge needed to step off the self depreciating cycles and as the self belief and trust in your inner voice grows you feel more empowered to bring about change in your life.
Finally...
The following quote by Carl Rogers, a well known Psychologist and one of the key founders of the humanistic approach to therapy, embodies the role of a therapist. It is one of my key influences behind all the counselling and life coaching work I do.
"People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right-hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds." - Carl Rogers
