The Counselling Barn

I am an integrative counsellor, which means I have been trained to use aspects of lots of different approaches instead of using one sole counselling method.

I think it’s important to recognise that the only person who fully holds the philosophical position of any particular counselling approach is the person who created it. With this in mind, I believe that in order to develop as a counsellor, I have needed to understand and incorporate my own philosophy, theory, and practice preferences. 

My philosophy is that every person is unique, every client’s process is unique… and we all have the ability to grow and for change to occur. My philosophical stand point is rooted in the person-centered approach, although I believe change and growth can continue to occur through the unlocking of past experience and insight into unconscious behaviour, which occurs in the counselling relationship. I believe that much childhood trauma is held in the body and using Gestalt as well as psychodynamic techniques is particularly useful in helping to shift stuck emotions, thus supporting people in moving forward into more balanced emotional experiences.

My practice is to hold the therapeutic relationship throughout my clients' process as the core to the therapy. I then build on this with other aspects of theory depending on what a client brings; this could mean working with the unconscious, exploring the way my client relates or introducing more solution-focused technique.