Making Meaning Counselling helps you gain wisdom and live in a way that optimises happiness, reduces emotional suffering and enhances your relationship with others.

Together we will create a space where you can experience greater "resonance" with yourself, and develop awareness of the workings of your mind.

• Deal with conflict, improve your communication skills, and make well-informed decisions;
• Access your own resources, strive towards your goals, and create a deeper sense of meaning;
• Explore and commit to values that are important to you;
• Feel better about yourself;
• Try out new ways of responding;
• Take care of your own heart and modulate your anxiety;
• Self-soothe your hurts and disappointments.
• Cope with stress and pain using mindfulness techniques;

Research shows mindfulness practices are a powerful tool to address health issues, foster well-being, increase resilience, and help with anxiety and depression.

• What is “counselling”?
• Is counselling for me?
• What can I expect from counselling?
• What happens if I decide to have counselling?
• How many sessions are needed?
• How long will it be before I can see results?
• How soon can I see a counsellor?
• Do you see couples as well as individuals?
• This would interest me but my partner may not be so keen
• You believe values and personal meaning are important. Can you tell me more about this?
• You also emphasise “acceptance”. Why?
• What do you mean by “acceptance”?
• I can appreciate what you are saying but will you offer any tools to deal with what seems to be the frequent stress in my life?
• Can you spell out the types of issues you deal with?
• Why do you do this work?

Most would say counselling is an engagement between two persons where a client and a counsellor talk and listen to one another. It is a genuine dialogue - with a view to manage the problems the client is facing or because a client feels he or she is not living as fully as possible.

Speaking with a counsellor gives you an opportunity to talk freely in confidence about your thoughts, feelings and difficulties in a way not possible with friends and families.

We offer both individual counselling and counselling for couples.

• The short answer is probably yes. It is likely that everybody – you, me, and others – can all benefit from counselling one time or another.

• Anybody going through a life crisis, whether this is a serious illness, bereavement, the loss of a job or a close relationship, would find counselling helpful.

• But you don’t need to be at a major crossroad to profit from counselling. It is for anybody who feels that their life could be improved.

Counselling can benefit you by providing:

• A greater sense of empowerment; helping you to become better in helping yourself in everyday life;
• A deeper understanding of yourself, your usual patterns, and your circumstances;
• A nurturing of what is best in you in developing your unused resources and strengthening your inner resources;
• Emotional acceptance;
• An increased ability to negotiate effectively the ups and downs that life brings;
• Skills in problem solving;
• A different view of ‘problems’ as opportunities for learning.

You can make an appointment with one of us see Contact Us. This first appointment lasts around an hour an a half. The first half hour is free if you book through our website, and the remainder of the session is charged at our usual hourly rate see Fees & Schedules.

In that first session, we listen to your concerns and define the problem, we talk about your needs and goals and we take a comprehensive life history. We work towards a plan that suits you. And we try to provide some ideas and strategies which may be of immediate help.

This can vary greatly. Counselling time is usually on the basis of one session a week lasting one hour, though sessions particularly for relationship counselling may last longer or be less frequent than once a week.

A common short term agreement would be for six to twelve sessions, with a review at the end of that time as to whether to continue or not.

Longer term counselling might be for one year or two years.

But on occasions, clients may simply want to ‘touch bases’ as the need arises or if a particular problem crops up after their initial counselling contract.

Of course this can also vary but usually you can expect to see results after six sessions or so.

Generally you will be able to see a counsellor the day after your enquiry or sometime during that week.

• We will reply to your email enquiries in the morning when we check our emails and fix a time for you to see us.

• You can call us on our mobiles, in the morning if possible (usually we are with clients in the afternoons and evenings and we switch our mobiles off). If we are not able to answer your call please leave a message in Message Bank with your name, telephone number and a good time to call you back.

Yes. If both partners would like assistance, we are happy to arrange couples counselling. This gives a safe and supportive environment where you can speak openly in the presence of your partner. The process focuses upon taking responsibility for resolving your own issues for your own integrity rather than trying to change your partner or ‘work on the relationship’.

This process of sharing openly and of “confronting” yourself in front of your partner is helpful and powerful and will deepen intimacy in committed relationships.

Again, this is not an unusual thing because in relationships there is a great temptation to see all the problems residing in the other person.

If your partner is unwilling or uncertain, it may be better for you to work first with us on an individual basis.

And the good news, as our experience suggests, when you change, your relationship changes.

Yes, we are interested in how people give meaning to their lives. “Meaning” is a perspective - a way of looking at things.

We assist clients identify, and, if necessary, redefine the values in their own lives, Being true to your values gives your life a direction. Your values give meaning to your life, and meaning gives you a point of reference to which you can evaluate the usefulness of your behaviour in different situations.

Meaning also gives us a sense of perspective and when your life has a purpose, distressing emotions are no longer obstacles to living.

In our approach, acceptance is the key that allows change to occur, and is what really makes change possible.

“Acceptance” is the willingness to experience internal events such as thoughts, feelings, memories and physiological reactions in order to participate in activities that are deemed important and meaningful. It involves learning to accept ourselves with all our flaws, weaknesses, strengths and talents.

• It is a stance towards life and very much about behaviour and actions.
• It is not resignation or apathy.
• It creates the space for us to think our thoughts and feel our emotions rather than continuing to resort to automatic, habitual ways of reacting.
• It also removes the need to remain engaged in a constant struggle with these thoughts, emotions and life circumstances.
• And it permits us to live with meaning and purpose now – rather than postpone until sometime in the future.
  

Our work is tailored towards a better understanding of stress.

It is a valuable asset if you are able to recognise when you are under stress and to become aware of your options in stressful situations rather than getting stuck in stress reactivity.

Some of the skills taught are:

• Mindfulness skills
• Meaning-making skills
• Emotion regulation
• Distress tolerance
• Strategic behaviour

As an example, some of the advantages of practicing ‘mindfulness’ are:

• To develop additional calm and inner peace
• To increase the accuracy of attention and assist in shifting the focus of attention
• To increase pain tolerance and immune functioning
• To increase the effectiveness of the use of our senses in experiencing the world

These skills can be taught during individual sessions. Clients are invited to practice them in their own time, and to use those techniques that work for them.

Can you spell out the types of issues you deal with?
Yes, here are some examples:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Alcohol or drug dependence
• Grief and loss
• Relationship difficulties
• Parent-child problems
• Step family dynamics
• Coping with separation
• Workplace stress
• Loss of energy or enthusiasm
• Sleeplessness
• Shifting moods
• Search for values
• Emotional pain
• Stress
• Conflicted feelings
  

As our own life journeys have unfolded, we have learnt much about ourselves and about each other. In so doing we have become clearer about how we want to live, including how we want to share the benefits of our experience and training.

We are extremely fortunate to have found a similar direction in our work, and doubly fortunate that we can do this as a joint venture. To share and support others in their struggle and exploration offers us both inspiration and fulfilment.