Therapy I Provide

Styles of counselling

Integrative Counselling

Integrative Counselling is when different schools of the same approach are used together in a multi-functional therapy. The fundamental basis is the Humanistic approach where the emphasis is placed on helping you reach your full potential. This is achieved by the counsellor facilitating the right environment for that change to happen. This combines the following 3 approaches: person-centered counselling, Gestalt therapy, and Transactional Analysis.

What is person-centered counselling?

My approach is based on the person-centered core model. Central to this approach is the relationship between the counsellor and the client, establishing a trust to enable the client to explore issues in their own time and in their own way. I aim to create a space where it feels safe to talk about the things that concern you without feeling judged.

The power of this approach is the way in which you set the agenda and topics and I will endeavour to support and help you in your journey without directing you. Person-centered therapy, which focuses on the unique, individual experience of each person, ‘their reality’ and their self concept.

Person-centered counseling places a Counsellor in a role where they support clients to identify their own natural self-healing by focusing on a client’s own experiences and views of themselves. The idea is that people are best placed to make decisions on what they would like to do with their own lives. This puts person-centered counseling in stark contrast with more traditional forms of therapy where a counsellor is an expert who identifies what issues a client has and advises the client on what they require to do to recover.

Gestalt therapy

Gestalt therapy which believes that issues arise when we get stuck in fixed patterns and beliefs about ourselves; focusing on our awareness in the present.

Gestalt is a humanistic therapy, which means that it assumes human beings are essentially healthy and naturally tend to fulfill their needs and grow physically and psychologically. However, people can go through experiences, often in early life, which interfere with this process. These experiences create difficulties that can block or distort a person’s growth and development. Gestalt therapy aims to help people become aware of and understand these blocks, giving them the opportunity to resume the process of healthy development. Gestalt theory understands that no two people are alike, and that we all have areas where we feel vulnerable or reactive, and that looking at these areas requires gentleness, compassion, and a lack of judgement on the part of the therapist.

Gestalt is a very practical approach to therapy. It directly addresses the personal concerns of the client. It very often takes the form of a simple respectful dialogue between therapist and client (I and Thou, here and now), focussing on exploring and understanding the thoughts, sensations, emotions, and physical responses a person has in relation to their dealings with the world. In Gestalt-speak, this is called ‘attending to process’. It also attends to a person’s internal process: how we treat ourselves; how we talk to ourselves. Are we too hard on ourselves? Are we kind? How do we support ourselves to face difficult situations?

As well as dialogue, Gestalt therapy can include ‘experiments’, which might include the use of objects or drawings to represent aspects of an issue or the use of role play. For example, a therapy session may include role play designed to explore a particular interpersonal situation in depth, with a view to providing an enhanced understanding of why we react the way we do, and how we might react more effectively should a similar situation arise again.

Transactional Analysis

Transactional Analysis seeks to uncover how we relate through Ego states or states of being; as an Adult, Parent, or Child.

The best-known TA concept is the ego-state model. An ego-state is a set of related behaviours, thoughts and feelings. If, for example, we have a rational response to a situation, we are said to be in the adult ego-state. If, instead we behave in a way that reminds of us our parents’ behaviour, we are said to be in our parent ego-state. At times we might think, feel or behave as we were as children. This indicates that we might be in our child ego-state.

These parts converse with one another in ‘transactions’ and, within each social interaction, oneself predominates. Therefore by recognising these roles, the client can choose which part to adopt and so adjust their behaviour.

In transactional analysis, clients have a Life Script, a way of understanding their beliefs about themselves and the world around them. TA therapists want to identify these script beliefs and, if necessary, work with the client to modify them.