Psychotherapy & Counselling
Counselling and psychotherapy are similar and yet different.
Counselling is generally concerned with talking through life events, rites of passage and stages of life, loss and bereavement, and the mundane or extraordinary dilemmas that come up over the course of a life. Counselling is a conversation directed toward working through life events.
Psychotherapy is generally more concerned with abiding trauma and chronic recurring patterns of interpersonal and self relating. Psychotherapy aims to address the underlying dynamics that can prevent a person from becoming themselves.
'I never dreamt, in my dream, I'm Dalai Lama.'
Dalai Lama
Life inevitably tasks us with how to deal with stress, fear and the drama that is life. I enjoy working with people as they wake up to themselves, and get beyond their preoccupations.
'And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.'
Anais Nin
Both counselling and psychotherapy start with a conversation about why you have come for therapy. It's not necessary to decide whether you want counselling or psychotherapy; the nature and extent of the issues generally suggest the direction. Often therapy starts out as counselling which might then develop into psychotherapy.
Counselling is generally shorter taking a matter of weeks, months or a few years; psychotherapy is generally longer. I see people over the short and long term. Unless otherwise contracted for, each session lasts 50 minutes. I usually see people once per week at the same time; greater frequency can be arranged upon request. I see people face to face, by telephone, Skype, FaceTime and Zoom. Weather permitting, and by arrangement, therapy sessions can take place while walking out in the sunshine.