Areas often explored include work and relationship problems, life changes (including loss, illness and bereavement), stress, anxiety and depression.

I do not see my clients as broken, damaged or ‘ill’, they are doing their best often in very difficult circumstances.   I see them as having all the resources they need right now; however, are often stuck and unable to make the changes they might like.  Together we will hopefully create a relationship which will enable clients develop a sense of trust and agency in their feelings and needs, and therefore facilitate their own solutions and transcend current challenges.

My approach is flexible to client needs, I believe through our work together in individual therapy they will be able to solve their own problems with the benefits being reflected in relationships with others, including their families.  I don’t pretend to have a solution; however, I try to help clients find out what they need and want.

The earlier approaches to counselling, which are still available today, place the therapist in a position of power; as an expert who can interpret experiences often using convoluted language.  I personally prefer clients to tell me their interpretation of what is going on and how they make sense of the world; it tends to be much richer, detailed and accurate.   Other more contemporary ‘medical’ approaches encourage clients to ‘think’ your way out of your situation, which can be useful for phobias, but in my experience, and research supports this, the results are short term.  I find such approaches reduce the experience of being human to lists, scores and percentages.

“People wish to be confirmed in being with others… which can only come from one human being to another”.

(Martin Buber, 1970)