Have you ever wondered how it is you, or someone close to you, can be harsh and yet soft, scared but brave, loving yet angry - sometimes simultaneously? So often we feel torn between opposite extremes of emotion, and that is exactly when it can prove constructive -and ultimately healing – to explore these apparent contradictions and work towards acceptance – even reconciliation - of these two forces. 

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‘Embrace contradictions for they make up all of life: you will eternally be looking for yourself and seeking ways to lose yourself.’

Kamand Kojouri, Poet

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There is no need to stick rigidly to the ‘script’ our parents gave us! Counselling and psychotherapy are critical tools, which may help us break out of a restrictive life script and become authors of our own destiny, working collaboratively with the influences which surround us and impact on us.

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‘Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.’

 Viktor E Frankl  

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As an integrative counsellor, I draw on Transpersonal, Existential and Gestalt models of counselling. The counselling process may involve giving space to voices or sub personalities, including those we may have tried to ban from conscious awareness. Perhaps this has happened because we felt we would be judged by those close to us, and therefore had to repress important parts of our complex personalities. Within the safety and confidentiality of the therapeutic space, you may  discover that our strategies for self defence and survival, once critical survival strategies, are not longer serving you – as you struggle to evolve or adapt to new circumstances. Releasing and exploring creative pathways within the self may involve, not only therapeutic dialogue, but role-play, chair work, visualisation, dream interpretation, drawing mandalas and/or engaging with stones to represent members of your family and explore your interpersonal relationships with them. 

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‘… existence is not a noun-like thing, but a verb-like happening’ 

Mick Cooper, Existential Psychotherapist

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My approach is humanistic and holistic, but some of the issues which have arisen with clients include: family issues, relationships, loss, abuse, bereavement, low self esteem, work issues, life changes, sexual identity, self development, dream work, creative and spiritual growth. Many of my clients have been young people, struggling to assert themselves as independent beings – sometimes in the face of family conflicts or parental disapproval. I have also worked with older clients in ‘middle life’, who – perhaps affected by a sudden crisis in their circumstances – have had to come to terms with loss and re-evaluate their inner selves and their relationships with others and with the world. 

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‘Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’

 Viktor E Frankl

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