Why counselling?

Counselling is essentially a genuine mutual exchange between two people and it is a process that requires commitment of time and effort by both. We will not judge you or give advice. Our aim in counselling is to help you understand more about the issues you are facing and to help you to find your own positive way of dealing with them, so enabling you to become more in charge of your own life.

Why come for counselling?

People come for counselling for many different reasons. Issues which often benefit from counselling include:

Depression
Anxiety and stress
Low self-esteem
Loneliness
Bereavement
Eating disorders
Anger
Traumatic experiences

Abuse
Work difficulties
Sexual identity
Cultural issues
Relationships
Problems in adolescence
Difficulties in parenting
Life crisis or transitions

Whoever you are, whatever your age, whatever the situation or problem you are facing, it can be useful to talk things over in confidence with an understanding outsider.

What does confidentiality mean?

Confidentiality means that nothing you talk about and discuss with your counsellor is revealed to anyone else without your specific consent. All counsellors are supervised (a requirement of BACP to ensure competent and ethical practice) but discuss cases and not people. On very rare occasions it may not be possible to keep confidentiality if your counsellor feels there is a risk of danger to you or to someone else close to you. In this case, your counsellor would discuss this with you beforehand and talk through who else needed to be involved for safety reasons.