General & Individual Counselling in Shrewsbury
If you're looking for
general counselling, individual counselling or one-to-one counselling in Shrewsbury, I offer private face-to-face sessions for adults experiencing emotional, personal, relationship or life difficulties.
You don't need to know what kind of counselling you need before getting in touch. You may be dealing with a particular problem such as anxiety, depression, grief or stress, or you may simply feel unhappy, overwhelmed, stuck or aware that something in your life needs to change.
A Practical Approach to Counselling
People come to counselling for many different reasons. You may be struggling with anxiety, depression, grief, stress or unhappiness, having difficulties in a relationship, struggling with anger, or simply finding that something in your life has become increasingly difficult to cope with.
Sometimes there is an obvious problem. At other times, you may simply know that you don't feel right and that
something needs to change.
For more than twenty-five years, I have worked as a counsellor with individuals and couples experiencing a wide range of emotional, personal and relationship difficulties.
My approach is practical, active and focused on understanding
what is happening in your life now, how it is affecting you and what may help something change.Whether you think of what you're looking for as
general counselling, personal counselling, individual counselling or simply someone to talk to, the starting point is the same: understanding what is happening for you and what you would like to be different.
What Can I Come to Counselling About?
You don't need to fit neatly into a particular category or have a diagnosis before coming to counselling. People seek my help for many different reasons, including:
- Anger Management
- Relationship & Couples Counselling
- Anxiety and persistent worry
- Depression and low mood
- Stress and feeling overwhelmed
- Grief, bereavement and loss
- Persistent unhappiness
- Anger and frustration
- Relationship and family difficulties
- Separation, rejection and loneliness
- Resentment and difficulty letting go
- Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
- Shame and guilt
- Difficult life changes
- Feeling stuck or unable to move forward
- Repeating patterns of behaviour
- Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour
- Trauma and difficult past experiences
- Pornography addiction or compulsive pornography use
- Sex addiction or compulsive sexual behaviour
- Other addictive or compulsive behaviours
- Problems controlling emotional reactions
- Feeling that something isn't right, even when you can't explain exactly what it is
You don't need a diagnosis or even a clear explanation of what is wrong before coming to counselling. Sometimes knowing that something needs to change is enough to begin.Individual Counselling That Focuses on What Is Happening Now
Your past matters. Our experiences can influence how we see ourselves, other people and the world around us. When something from your past is relevant to what is happening today, we can explore it.
But I don't assume that counselling has to involve spending months analysing your past before you can begin making changes in the present.
We start with
what has brought you to counselling now.
What is happening? How are you responding to it? What keeps repeating? What feels outside your control? And what might help you begin responding differently?
We begin working with the problem that brought you to me from our first session.Understanding Why You Feel the Way You Do
When something has happened to us, our emotional response can feel completely justified. If someone has hurt us, betrayed us or treated us unfairly, anger can seem entirely understandable. If we've experienced loss, rejection, disappointment or circumstances we never wanted, unhappiness can feel equally understandable.
Counselling isn't about telling you that you shouldn't feel the way you do.
We begin by understanding
why your response makes sense to you and what is happening within you when that response is triggered.
The important question then becomes whether that response is helping you deal with what has happened — or whether it is beginning to create further difficulties in your life.
Understanding why we react as we do can be the beginning of discovering whether another response is possible.From Automatic Reaction to Conscious Response
Much of our emotional response to life happens automatically.
Something occurs and, before we've had much opportunity to think about it, we may find ourselves anxious, angry, overwhelmed, withdrawn, resentful or deeply unhappy.
Sometimes we understand perfectly well why we feel the way we do. But understanding the circumstances doesn't necessarily stop the emotional reaction.
Part of our work can involve slowing that process down and beginning to recognise
what happens between an event and your response to it.
When something that was previously automatic becomes something you can recognise as it is happening, another possibility appears.
Instead of simply reacting, you can begin to have greater choice in how you respond.A Different Relationship With Life's Problems
People will sometimes disappoint us. Relationships change. We experience loss, uncertainty, rejection, frustration and circumstances outside our control.
Counselling isn't about teaching you not to feel sadness, fear, disappointment, grief or pain. These are normal human emotions, and often there are perfectly understandable reasons for feeling them.
But sometimes our emotional response can become part of the problem. We may find ourselves repeatedly thinking about what happened, fighting against something we cannot change, remaining angry long after the event, or becoming caught in patterns of unhappiness that begin affecting other areas of our lives.
That is something we can begin to understand together.
We cannot always change what has happened, but understanding our response to it can open up new possibilities for what happens next.Private One-to-One Counselling in Shrewsbury
Sessions are private, one-to-one and face-to-face with me at my practice in Shrewsbury.
I don't simply sit silently while you talk. Being heard and understood matters, but you've also come because you want something to change.
I will listen carefully, ask questions, offer observations and help you look at what is happening from perspectives you may not have considered before.
This is collaborative work. There isn't a predetermined programme that every client follows because every person and every situation is different.
For
Anger Management, I also offer a structured six-session programme. Relationship and Couples Counselling is available for couples as well as individuals who want help understanding what is happening within their relationship.
We start with you, what is happening in your life and what you would like to be different.Looking for an Individual Counsellor in Shrewsbury?
You may have arrived here simply because you are looking for a
counsellor in Shrewsbury rather than because you have identified a particular problem.
That's perfectly fine.
Individual counselling gives you the opportunity to talk privately about whatever is happening in your life and begin making sense of difficulties that may have become hard to deal with alone.
Sessions are with me personally and last a full 60 minutes. There is no requirement to commit to a predetermined number of sessions. We can begin with what is happening now and see what you need as the work develops.
Taking the First Step
You don't need to know exactly what you want to say before coming to counselling. You don't need to have worked out why you feel the way you do, and you don't need to arrive with an explanation for everything that has happened.
We can start with whatever is happening in your life now and work from there.
Sometimes the first step is simply recognising: something needs to change. 
