Welcome
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Counselling Services
A trained counsellor is someone trained to offer a talk-based therapy. There are many types of talk-based therapy. A counsellor may work in partnership with a medical doctor or other health professionals at times to give comprehensive and integrated care.
Counselling provides confidential support. This means that everything you discuss with the counsellor is private, between you and the counsellor. The exception is when a counsellor has a duty of care to report something that threatens your wellbeing or the wellbeing of others. This legal requirement will be explained to you in your first counselling session.
There are many different types of counselling and approaches that counsellors use will vary.
It is reasonable to ask the counsellor at the end of the first session for an estimate of how many sessions they think you will need. However, remember that this is only an estimate.
Some problems can be successfully resolved in a few sessions. In other cases, talking about the particular problem with the counsellor may bring up deeper, unresolved issues that need further exploration.
Supervision Services
It is widely accepted that all counsellors, whether experienced or just starting out, will benefit from having regular professional supervision. A supervisor acts in a mentoring role, providing emotional support as well as information and guidance.
Counsellors working within helping agencies will hopefully have supervision sessions built into their work schedules, but it may be overlooked by those working in other organisations or in private practice. While recognising its value, some beginning counsellors may feel threatened by the idea of someone “judging” their effectiveness and avoid seeking supervision if it is not part of their work situation.
Geldard and Geldard in their book Basic Personal Counselling (2001) state that all counsellors need supervision to help them resolve their own issues and to avoid burnout in what is an emotionally draining occupation. As well as providing a sounding board for the counsellor’s concerns, a supervisor is in a good position to spot the onset of any symptoms of burnout and to assist the counsellor in dealing with them.
Supervision is perhaps the most important component in the development of a competent practitioner. It is within the context of supervision that trainees begin to develop a sense of their professional identity and to examine their own beliefs and attitude regarding clients and therapy. (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007, p.360)
A good counsellor will be fully aware of his or her own values, beliefs, attitudes and biases; being aware of them lessens the danger of their impacting negatively on the counselling relationship. We all operate within a personal belief system, but counsellors need to remember always to work with their clients in a way which is consistent with the client’s values, not their own.
As in all professions the counsellor needs to be constantly upgrading their knowledge and skills: there is ongoing development of psychotherapeutic techniques, strategies and models and it is incumbent upon us to keep up to date. If we neglect to pursue this continuing learning process we are short changing our clients.
Workshops
Toni conducts workshops for counsellors who are interested in using Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT) as a counselling modality. They are usually conducted as a webinar to facilitate ease of attendance and scheduling.