Counselling ‘talking therapy’ can benefit anyone who is struggling with emotional difficulties, life challenges and mental health concerns. These maybe things that you are experiencing now and want to change, or significant or traumatic events from the past such as divorce, relationship issues or the death of a loved one. Counselling offers a safe and confidential place to talk about your feelings, thoughts and concerns that you might be experiencing.
Counsellors are there to listen and enable you to find solutions to your problems, by helping you to see and experience things in a different way and move on with your life. They are not there to offer advice or solve your problems.
My own experience of counselling
I went for Counselling myself and this gave me the opportunity to explore my own thoughts and feelings, and the underlying unconscious reasons why I behaved in a certain way. I realised that everyone has within them the means and power to change but only when you open to change and start to see or experience things in a different way.
It is only our beliefs that stop us from achieving the life we want! Once we start seeing life in a different way sometimes through other people’s perspective, then we can start to create the life we want. This whole experience has completely changed my life for the better and I no longer have those old beliefs.
Counselling has found to be helpful with the following:
Abuse
Abuse maybe physical, emotional, sexual or psychological – you may be experiencing this type of behaviour now or in a past relationship. This type of behaviour is harmful to you and can have long term effects on your health and mental wellbeing
Addictions
May manifest itself in many forms such as: alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, food, social media and retail therapy to name a few. It can change your behaviour once you are under the influence and it is likely that you did it initially for enjoyment or to feel better but now feels out of control and affecting many areas of your life in a negative way.
Adolescence
Young adults go through many changes and can often develop mood swings and frustrations due to the pressure of life. Counselling can help them to talk things through.
Anger management
Often, we don’t know the causes of why we get very angry over trivial things, this type of behaviour if it spirals out of control can have a negative impact on yourself and others. It can be very helpful to talk about the causes and identity situations where you experience these feelings enabling you to manage them better.
Anxiety
Everyone experiences anxiety at certain times in their lives but sometimes we feel overwhelmed due to circumstances or a feeling of being out of control. These can manifest into panic attacks causing physical symptoms such as:
- Feeling dizzy and sweaty
- Tingling or numbness in the hands and fingers.
- Sense of impending doom
- Chest pains, racing heart
- Breathing difficulties.
- Feeling a loss of control.
Bullying
Can affect children and adults, you feel powerless, frightened and alone. Talking can help you find solutions and take back control of your life.
Depression
Depression can affect anybody at different stages in your life, it can happen to a reaction to a specific life event such as divorce, bereavement, redundancy. Counselling helps you to identify what you are feeling and how you can help yourself to recovery
Divorce/Separation
When a relationship ends it can be painful and difficult to move on, sometimes we have no one to talk to for support or guidance. Talking to a counsellor individually or as a couple can help to acknowledge the reasons why things have gone wrong and helps you to take responsibility for your part in the breakdown of the relationship. This may help to heal or separate healthily
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are often characterised by irregular eating patterns such as inadequate or excessive food intake. Often included in this is unrealistic obsessions about body weight or shape. Examples would be obesity, anorexia and bulimi. The physical effects of eating disorders can be very harmful and in extreme forms may be fatal. Counselling helps to look for the underlying causes as often a person may not know why they have an issue with eating.
Family issues
Family issues can occur throughout life and sometimes it is difficult to know how to manage these challenges, counselling may help you to find ways of working with the challenges.
Grief/Loss
Dealing with the death of a loved one or of anything significant in your life can be difficult. You will experience a range of conflicting emotions such as anger, sadness, hopelessness. Often you don’t want to burden your family or friends with your grief and nobody tells you what to expect and how to cope. Counselling can be a expressing how you feel and talking through these emotions.
OCD
Obsessive -compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder where someone has recurring and unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations that make them feel driven to do something repetitively. This often develops as a coping mechanism to help them feel safe and more in control, a kind of ‘ritual’ Counselling may help to identify the source of the anxiety and learn techniques to help manage the behaviour.
Parenting skills
Most people will gain their parenting skills through their own experience of being parented in their childhood. Some people however may never have had the opportunity of experiencing a ‘good’ parenting and may lack the skills. Maybe you don’t know how to react to certain situations with you children or how to set boundaries. Counselling can help you to look at boundaries and offer practical skills/techniques
Phobias
A phobia is an extreme fear of something that may seem irrational but to the person experiencing it can seem very real. It can have a negative impact on the person and also their family. Counselling, Hypnotherapy and NLP can help you to explore where this phobia originates from and help you to gain control of the irrational thinking.
PTSD
Post traumatic stress disorder can develop after witnessing or experiencing a serious traumatic event such as abuse, raped or sexually assaulted, car accident, witnessing violence or a life-threatening condition. A person is often left with symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks and disturbed sleep. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), Counselling and Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT) can help the brain to process the flashbacks and make sense of the traumatic experience.
Relationships
Relationships can be difficult at times as often we see and interrupt things in a different way based on our values and beliefs. We can often make assumptions based on what people don’t say without finding out the facts. If you find that there is conflict within any relationship sometimes it is good to talk and realise that there is a different perspective, counselling can help you to realise that by helping you to challenge your beliefs and ways of thinking.
Self-esteem/Self-confidence
Some people find it difficult to express themselves in their personal life, social life or in the work situation, they feel insignificant and not heard. There are many ways to help a person build confidence and self-esteem through techniques and exploring the reasons why they lack these skills.
Self-harm
Self-harm, or self-mutilation, is the act of deliberately inflicting pain and damage to one’s own body. Self-harm most often refers to cutting, burning, scratching, and other forms of external injury; it can, however, also include internal or emotional harm, such as taking drugs, consuming large amounts of alcohol and risky sex.
Often, reasons behind the behaviour are unknow to the person by talking to a counsellor often helps to explore and understand the reason behind any self-harming behaviour.