What I offer

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I understand that the first steps into counselling can be daunting and challenging. My aim is to make the transition into therapy as smooth and comfortable for you as possible. I want you to feel at complete ease with me, as this is vital for the healthy development of a productive therapeutic relationship that is highly effective for you.

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I will set out a mutual working agreement that takes into account your needs. This is essential for the productive development and maintenance of a strong - ethically boundaried and committed - healthy therapeutic relationship. This dynamic will support you while you navigate the terrain of your life, as you find your way to increased awareness, acceptance and well-being.

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My core approach to therapy is Person-centred. Fundamentally, this means that I practice from the belief that you have an innate capacity and capability to heal from within. I will dedicate myself to your subjective world, working relationally with empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence. I will work to cultivate a space of warmth and calm, where you will feel fully heard, understood and accepted, exactly as you are. Strong rapport and trust will organically develop between us, empowering you to feel safe and comfortable so you can explore your issues gradually. 

 

Utilising my experience and unique way of being, I will offer my therapeutic presence, which will empower you to encounter your issues and feelings at your own pace and in as much depth as you choose. Over time, this will give way to your greater awareness, acceptance, well-being and progress. I will challenge you appropriately as your process develops.

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The Person-Centred Approach

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The Person-Centred Approach to counselling was founded and developed by Carl Rogers between the late 1920’s and the 1960’s. It was ground-breaking for its time, being the first Humanistic Psychological Approach. It places the focus on the individuals’ subjective experiences being their true reality, that within us is the innate ability to lead ourselves to our own answers. It places the focus on this ability as always being in motion, yearning for its truest form. He called this ability the 'actualising tendency'.

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Rogers’ theorised that the key requirement of the counsellor was to enter the client’s frame of reference – their subjective world of experience. Rogers stated that once with the client in their subjective world, it was necessary to provide three core conditions. By offering empathy (the ability to truly enter another person’s world of feeling), unconditional positive regard (to accept and value the client completely without judgement) and congruence (to be completely authentic within the experience of the relationship so the internal experience matches the external behaviour) the counsellor could work to create an environment that would help facilitate therapeutic movement for the client.

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In 1957 the extensive work of Rogers and his Chicago research staff resulted in the publication of the ‘necessary and sufficient conditions’ paper, published in the Journal of Consulting Psychology. This paper was of great importance in the history of the Person-Centred Approach. It stated that for therapeutic change to occur for the client only 6 Conditions need be present to a minimal degree. This was a ground-breaking statement in the theorising of psychotherapy for its time, as it placed the emphasis on the relationship between the client and the counsellor being the key to therapeutic movement .

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The Person Centred Approach has proven to be highly effective for the healthy growth of the individual. The key focus for the effectiveness of the Person-Centred model is within the transformative power of the therapeutic relationship. Depth of therapeutic relationship means the client is more likely to experience internal movement and move from rejection of self, to a place of self-acceptance, and ultimately self-love. I pledge to offer you that depth of relationship!

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