Counsellor for Individuals
Also called one-to-one counsellor, individual counsellor can help people address their issues with a trained therapist who understands the importance of listening. Listening is not always what's happening when you're speaking to someone you know. What may actually be happening when you are talking with others:
- they may have their own point of view and therefore have made-up their mind about what your problem is
- they’re focusing on what it has triggered for them and transferred that to your situation
- they have made up their own minds about previous conversations you have had and may be fed up of hearing about it
So what you are not getting from others is being heard with the total focus on you that you really need.
But an individual counsellor like myself hears what's not being said, underlying issues, past experiences, lack of confidence and low self-esteem. Those underlying issues are masked when talking to friends, family, work colleagues and strangers but when in a counselling session, the counsellor understands the need for the mask.
What can surprise my clients is when they actually look forward to their sessions because each time they learn more about themselves, which supports positive change. Gradually, they begin to understand what causes their issues, and they start connecting the dots.
I'm particularly experienced in the following areas.
Sexual Abuse Counsellor
Sexual abuse issues from childhood remain with my clients for the rest of their lives. When they attend counselling, it's so they can not only address the abuse, but also to help look at how they can live happy lives whilst coming to terms with the sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the majority of the cases that are brought forward involves someone who is close to them and someone within the family. I go with where the client is able to, because it's very emotional with lots of memories. In most cases, it involves feelings of guilt, anger, trust issues and unanswered questions.
Through therapy, the client is able to understand the process of grooming and when it started. In most cases, it began before the sexual abuser got to my client. For example the man - if it is a man who abused - would have to begin the deceit with the partner, family etc. in order to get to the child in the first place. Consequently, he deceives the woman with the child into believing he loves her and that he is of course heterosexual. Towards the child/children, he may be very attentive and gains trust at first, grooming the child to when he is ready to take the next step.
Having a therapist who understands the process of sexual abuse helps you understand that it was never your fault. And something clients rarely acknowledge, a therapist will shed light on the tools it took for them to survive this heinous crime.
Alcohol Abuse Counsellor
Alcohol problems can creep into our lives so easily, as people drink routinely at so many occasions and alcohol is an acceptable drug to use in general. However, what may seem as a social activity can change to become a crutch. It can become something to rely on to communicate, participate, to suppress, to cope, to help you be the life of the party, to get up in the morning or go to sleep at night. Before my clients know it, they find that they don't know how to stop drinking and that it is ruining their lives at work and home. For these people, alcohol can ruin relationships, marriages, jobs, etc. as their primary focus is the drinking.
Having alcohol abuse counselling has helped my clients identify what alcohol first "helped" them with. The counsellor will identify when it stopped being helpful and instead a problem you were no longer in control of (i.e. the alcohol was in control of you). I will help you regain an understanding of the causes and how you can make changes to support yourself. It could be as simple and taking the first step of making sure you get to work on time - that is, creating a small structure.
Auricular acupuncture is used to help with the effects of alcohol abuse. As an auricular acupuncturist, I use it to help detoxify the body, make my clients relax, destress and to alleviate depression. Most of my clients feel the benefits immediately and will even fall asleep - a natural sleep not induced through alcohol.
Other counselling areas I have experience in
- Anger issues
- Work-related issues
- Cancer
- Family issues
- Relationship issues
- Depression
- Anxiety and stress
- Low self-esteem
