Freda engaged with me after a life changing experience which profoundly challenged the way she was living her life. I created a secure environment in which she felt safe enough to explore her history in a way that helped find context and meaning to her experiences along with new understanding and direction for her future and that of her children.

We explored her emotional confusion, where authentic feelings of sadness and grief had been taken hostage by anger which she had directed towards herself for many years, this manifesting as destructive attitudes and behaviours. This exploration was powerfully facilitated in local woodland where the trees and landscape became a living metaphor, mirroring her life’s experiences. New growth, in the form of saplings growing from a fallen tree trunk also served as a motivation to a better future, as we considered Nature’s resilience in its battle to survive and adapt to its environment.

Graham had not been able to get his need for support and understanding for his anxiety issues met, within a primary healthcare setting and his healthcare professionals recommended that he seek alternative private counselling. He chose to work with me since I had a good understanding of the business orientated and general life issues about which he had become very anxious to a point where he was becoming withdrawn, to the detriment of his general well-being, life and relationships.

I was able to quickly establish a good working relationship with Graham, through which I was able to help him to find context and a sense of proportion to the various matters which were undermining his hopes for a full and meaningful life.

After 8 sessions, Graham’s medical advisors were able to start a dialogue and set a timescale to consider managing away his medications.

Ian and Jane engaged with me for relationship advice and couples counselling after experiencing relationship problems when they started living together, after having enjoyed a number of happy years together, albeit mainly weekends and holidays based.

I worked with them to create a safe and supportive environment where they could each understand what it meant to them, individually, to be in a good relationship and to explore and share their expectations and concerns in a way that helped them to understand one another better and to overcome the barriers that threatened their future. A spin off benefit of this work was that their communication and assertiveness skills improved with each other and other key people.

I worked with each of them separately, to help them to understand where some of their individual personality characteristics and behaviours came from and to learn and integrate new ways to avoid and overcome the problems that these factors caused. I also helped them to identify their personal strengths and resources, to understand how they could be used to good effect to support their relationship.

Having overcome their relationship difficulties, their confidence in the relationship grew and their commitment strengthened to a point where they felt secure enough to start a family.