Counselling can offer the opportunity to work through any challenging time or situation. People come to counselling for all different reasons. It may be that they are unhappy or feel stuck and want to make a change and don't know where to begin, a sudden event or traumatic experience might be making life really hard to manage, or there may be a specific issue to work through.
Whatever the reason, counselling can offer the time to look at what is happening in a safe and supportive environment with someone completely removed from the situation.
I offer short term and long term face to face or online individual and relational counselling. Making the decision to start counselling can be a really hard and scary one. In our initial session we would talk about what had bought you to counselling, if you think counselling might help you and if so, whether we would work well together and how that might look going forward.
IFS can be a powerful and transformative way of working. As you will see from the video linked here, the modality takes the belief that all of our minds are multiple (which is positive!) and that these parts, which we are born with, make up our personality; who we are, our qualities, skills, attributes etc, but life experience may mean that our parts are forced to take on new roles or jobs in order to protect us and to keep us safe. By getting to know these parts and why they think, feel and act like they do, we can begin to understand ourself and begin to make the changes in our life that we want to make.
As well as parts, we all have 'Self'. I believe that self is the core of us, our spirit, but discovering what this means to you is deeply personal. "Self is in everyone. It can't be damaged. It knows how to heal."
(Quote: What is Internal Family Systems? | IFS Institute (ifs-institute.com)
As an integrative counsellor I draw on many ways of working, but IFS informs my practice and I may offer this way of understanding to you in our sessions if I feel it would be beneficial. As with any approach I offer, it is up to you whether it is something you choose to adopt.
I am a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). This means that I work in accordance with the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice (you can find the full document here). I am fully insured and hold an Enhanced DBS.