Therapy-Counselling

Therapy is more likely to work if you feel comfortable and at ease with your psychotherapist/counsellor. So, finding the right person for you is as important as finding the right type of therapy. Clients often say that more than just talking, they need to feel listened to, accepted and understood. Clients often say therapy does not make their problem go away, but that they feel more capable of handling situations when a positive slant is imposed. If you change the way you think you can change how you react, this is a process of you taking control of your thoughts and not the other way round. If you find yourself worrying about things that may never happen changing the way you think about them will help, therapy can suggest how you can achieve this. 

Roberta focuses her knowledge and applies it in social and community settings emphasising  the relevance of psychology to social problems and to the study of lifelong development.  She has also studied advanced topics in social psychology, including abnormal psychology and community mental health, the development of social behaviour in children and young people, psychology in organisations and the psychology of conflict and aggression.

The person-centred approach to counselling is  rooted in humanistic philosophy that has an optimistic view of the individual and a belief that each person has the capacity to move in the direction of more fulfilling ways of being and living their lives. It is based on each individual finding their own answers and direction and this is achieved when the client is able to understand their own limitations and potential. Therapy is not a miracle cure, the aim in counselling and therapy is to help you increase your level of self-awareness so that, as a result, you can make the changes in your life to bring about improvement.

Other therapies include cognitive analytic therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, TFT, EFT and humanistic therapy. Your therapy will be on a one-to-one basis (you and the therapist) except in the case of couple therapy if you are having problems in a relationship. You may find big changes in the way you think and behave as a result of therapy, you may understand yourself better or you may feel more able to handle situations you find yourself in.

Human nature is a theory of personality based on ‘conditions of worth’ that are transmitted via parents and significant others during childhood. This is how we construct a self concept, which will elicit love, approval and acceptance. This, is how we form our perceptions of ourselves, and the extent to which we have been judged and criticised, compromises our internal valuing process and stops us from behaving and living as we ought to.

Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques to help relationship building, dialogue, communication and behaviour change to improve the mental health of a client or to improve relationships. If you are coming to see the therapist for the first time the initial consultation helps establish if there is a need to refer you to another practitioner or therapy organisation if considered more appropriate. The choice to begin Counselling or Psychotherapy needs to be your own individual choice.

Therapy/Counselling sessions last 50 minutes and are held at a regular time and place. Sometimes the fee may be reduced by the means of the patient, especially when more than one session a week is required.

Talking about what comes to mind, gradually brings things to the surface. After the intial consultation with the therapist you will have the opportunity to discuss any concerns that you may have. Confidentiality is assured except in the instance of admission to self harm or of harm to others.

Counselling or psychotherapy?

It is not possible to make a generally accepted distinction between counselling and psychotherapy. There are well founded traditions which use the terms interchangeably and others which distinguish between them. If there are differences, then they relate more to the individual psychotherapist's or counsellor's training and interests and to the setting in which they work, rather than to any intrinsic difference in the two activities. A psychotherapist working in a hospital is likely to be more concerned with severe psychological disorders than with the wider range of problems about which it is appropriate to consult a counsellor. In private practice, however, a psychotherapist is more likely to accept clients whose need is less severe. Similarly, in private practice a counsellor's work will overlap with that of a psychotherapist. Those counsellors, however, who work for voluntary agencies or in educational settings such as schools and colleges usually concentrate more on the 'everyday' problems and difficulties of life than on the more severe psychological disorders. Many are qualified to offer therapeutic work which in any other context would be called psychotherapy. [British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP House, Unit 15 St John's Business Park, Lutterworth, Leicestershire LE17 4HB]

The Only Meaning Anything has is the Meaning You give it