Creative Counselling

What is counselling?

Counselling is the chance to talk in private with someone who will really listen and try to understand you and who will not judge you or tell you what to do. It can be a great relief to talk to someone outside your situation who will not be hurt or upset by what you say. Sometimes the people closest to you may not understand, or you may feel that you don't want to burden them with your worries. Or they may be part of the problem.

Counselling can also at times be a painful process as thoughts and feelings surface that may have been kept hidden for some time. Most clients decide that it is worth the struggle because once these thoughts and feelings have been dealt with they usually lose much or all of their power to hurt.

Some issues that counselling may help with are:

• Bereavement
• Divorce
• Serious or longterm illness in the family
• Worries about sexual identity
• Depression
• Suicidal feelings
• Drug and alcohol problems
• Eating disorders
• Relationship problems

If you have worries or concerns that you think may be helped by counselling, why not look at my section on choosing a counsellor?

How does counselling help?

There are a number of different theories about how counselling works. However all counselling has the same basic elements:

• Privacy and confidentiality
• Talking to someone who will really listen
• Talking to someone who is not part of the problem
• Getting another perspective on your life and problems

What sort of counselling is best?

There is a wide choice of different types of counselling but there is no one 'best' form of counselling, so it is worth looking around to find what suits you. Evidence suggests that all types of counselling are effective, so the type of counselling you choose may be less important than the relationship you have with your counsellor.

Remember, it is always your choice whether to stay with a particular counsellor - if you are not happy you can leave. A good counsellor will be willing to help you to find more suitable counselling if you are not happy with him or her.