Counselling

Counselling

I provide counselling and psychotherapy to a variety of clients and experience the joy of helping people to work out how they can move through their difficulties and achieve more satisfying lives. We all face challenges in life that can make us feel overwhelmed or stuck. I can help you navigate those moments and emerge stronger, more resilient and feeling more in control of your life.

So what is counselling? If you ask 20 counsellors to define counselling you are likely to get 20 different answers, but they are also likely to have many aspects in common!

PACFA (the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) defines counselling as “a safe and confidential collaboration between qualified counsellors and clients to promote mental health and wellbeing, enhance self-understanding, and resolve identified concerns. Counsellors … [use] … empathy and deep listening to establish positive working relationships … [making] … clients feel safe, understood, respected, and accepted without judgement.” 

ACA (the Australian Counselling Association) says that counsellors “use empirically supported interventions and specialised interpersonal skills to facilitate change and empower clients.” These changes include “change in perspective, new insight, new ways of thinking about situations, new awareness of feelings, enhanced capacity to tolerate and regulate feelings, new actions or behaviours, and new decisions about life.”

I believe that every individual is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. My counselling sessions are person-centred, meaning that I focus on building an empathic relationship with you so that you feel safe, connected and understood, but combine that with a variety of other evidence-based therapeutic approaches depending on your unique needs, personality and preferences.

Issues that I work with

I can offer help to individuals (15+) in dealing with emotional issues including but not limited to:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Lack of self-esteem
• Grief and loss
• Abusive relationships
• Workplace stress
• Study stress
• Relationship and family difficulties
• Life transitions and stages
• Adoption issues

Ethical practice is of the greatest importance to me. If I feel that you are more suited to a specialist or a practitioner with different expertise I will tell you and try to give you some referral options.

Ethics and Confidentiality

As a member of PACFA and ACA I am bound by their code of ethics. In particular this means that:

• Anything you tell me is strictly confidential and will only be disclosed without your consent if necessary under law, for example to protect your life or that of others.
• I will refer you on to another therapist if issues arise that present a conflict with our existing work or if a specialist therapist is required.