Areas of Expertise

Low self esteem Counselling

What is low self-esteem?

The way you feel about yourself is often seen by you as being very factual however it is merely your opinion of yourself. These opinions are determined by the experiences you’ve had in your life and what you took away from those lessons.

How to know if you have low self-esteem?

If your experiences have been negative then you’ll find that your opinion of yourself may very well be negative too. There are a number of different situations and experiences that can have an effect on your self-esteem, such as:

• Failing to meet parental standards
• Failing to meet peers’ standards
• Receiving other people’s stress and distress
• Being mocked
• Being abused, neglected or systematically punished
• Being absent of praise, affection or warmth from loved ones
• Feeling like the odd one out with family and or friends

Depression Counselling

What is depression?

Depression is classed as a mental health issue, which can be resolved with Counselling or Psychotherapy. There are different extremes to depression and feeling depressed. When depression manifests in its milder form, depression can make you feel a bit low – it won’t necessarily interfere with your day to day life however it does feel like everything is harder to achieve and not worthwhile doing. At the other end of the scale, extreme depression can be life-threatening; it can make you feel suicidal or you can start to convince yourself that there’s no point in living anymore.

Symptoms of depression

• You feel low most of the time throughout the day
• You can become teary very easily
• You feel helpless, numb and in despair
• You feel isolated and unable to relate to other people
• You can feel like you’re experiencing a sense of unreality
• You don’t enjoy doing activities you used to enjoy
• You may self-harm
• You find it difficult to speak or communicate with people
• You may have difficulty in remembering things
• You feel guilty and blame yourself a lot
• You have little or no self-confidence or esteem
• You may experience difficulty sleeping
• You may find that you don’t eat as much or enjoy your food
• You may find that you use more alcohol, tobacco or drugs more than usual

Counselling for Anxiety

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety comes in many forms. Some are mild whereas others are more extreme. Anxiety can be a physical feeling – you feel uneasy, unsure, you might experience sweaty palms, feeling unsettled, you may even feel it in the back of your throat or the pit of your stomach.

There are times when feeling anxious is ‘normal’, such as when you’re going for a job interview and may find you have some of the above symptoms. In these types of situations the anxiety is very short lived and these feelings do not tend to reoccur when you’re in other situations.

If you experience anxiety more regularly and it is affecting your day to day life, then it becomes an issue for you and/or those around you. Many people are affected by anxiety, varying in ages, ethnicities and gender.

When you work with me; I can use a method widely known as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This approach looks into the way you think before, during and after the situations where your anxiety is present. It may also be necessary to look at ways for you to cope with stressful situations, to enable you once the therapy process is finished to be able to deal with situations on your own.

Person Centered Counselling

What is Person-Centered Counselling?

Person-centred counselling is referred to as client centred counselling, this is a humanistic approach, based on how you view yourself rather than how the therapist views your unconscious and your thoughts. Person-centred counselling can help you to reach your full potential. Your therapist can help you through counselling to achieve your full potential.

The principles of the Person-centered approach

1). You as a human being are a thinking organism, you are individually responsible for what you do and fully capable of making choices about your behaviour

2). No one can understand another person’s behaviour without perceiving the world through that person’s eyes (empathy)

Unconditional positive regard

To accept you unconditionally as you are without judging you: to trust your ability to change negative behaviours into positive ones

Caring about you as a client: in a non-possessive caring way
Willingness to listen is an important manifestation
To be patient, warm, interested in all you have to say

Empathy

To see the world through your eyes and to understand the difficulties you face as though they were my own

Reflection of what I’ve understood about what you’ve said
Communicate my understanding of what you’re going through and how you feel
Working with you to raise your awareness of your own feelings

My Approach