I base my counselling style on a ‘Person-Centred’ approach. This essentially means that the client is at the centre of my practice, and the sessions revolve around what the client wants to speak about.
The start of a counselling session
At the start of a counselling session, after my client has settled into their seat and is ready to begin, I will often check to see how they are feeling, and if there is something particular they want to bring to the session. Other times we will start the session in a natural conversational way – and often this will lead onto my client talking about the important matters at hand, or we find ourselves looking at something unexpectedly relevant and significant. If we have left a previous session with a topic that needs further expression then I may prompt this at the start of the session.
The developing therapeutic relationship
As time goes on and I develop a deeper understanding of my clients, and we develop a deeper therapeutic relationship with each other, themes of experiences unfold which allow me to help my clients be aware of and use as reference points. These often allow my clients to gain a greater awareness of themselves, and to find ways to help them with life’s difficulties.
Sometimes structured, other times less so
Some of my clients want me to offer structured sessions where we look at particular issues, and collaboratively find ways to approach them and within which I am more obviously ‘active’ or even ‘directive’. Other clients find that simply being deeply listened to in a very natural way, without judgment or being advised or fixed, allows them to unravel for themselves the way they are experiencing life around them, that can give them a grounded and centred point within themselves to take on their lives with a more authentic ease.
A ‘person-centred’ way of being
It is the belief of many Person-Centred therapists that each of us hold within us an inherent impulse and all that we need to move through and towards a truly authentic and fulfilling life. It’s the aim (for want of a better word) of the therapy that I offer to provide a safe and non-judgemental space for my clients to move towards that, almost as if it is an inevitability.
I see my role as a therapist in assisting and journeying with my clients through their problematic experiences, towards their own discovery of self-authenticity. Unless they are expressly asked for I don’t offer ‘advice or solutions’, or try and ‘fix anything’ for my clients, as I believe with the right therapeutic relationship these things are available to clients to find them for themselves.
When clients do find their own way it’s far more likely to have a more significant and longer lasting impact.