What is Counselling?

We all wish for a feeling of well-being and fulfilment but many of us feel the opposite: dissatisfied and unhappy. Often this is a result of many conflicting feelings that restrict fulfilment and happiness and cause pain and confusion.

Counselling enables us to untangle, understand and accept the array of powerful emotions that affect so much of our life. This is done by reflecting on and making links between experiences from the past that continue to dominate our experiences in the present. With a foundation of reliability and confidentiality, counselling explores the problematic patterns in our relationships, both at home and at work, that seem to reoccur throughout life. Making sense of why we feel and behave the way we do is the first step towards change, and will enable more informed decisions as well as stronger self-belief.

This partiular approach has proved to be very effective for a broad spectrum of complex emotional difficulties such as anxiety, depression and somatised disorders.

ISTDP is rooted in traditional psychodynamic and analytic practices and theory and is based on the belief that supressed negative emotion impacts our decisions, relationships and behaviour in often a damaging and destructive way.

However, ISTDP differs from most traditional counselling or psychotherapy in that it is more active and emotionally focused, with the therapist being more pro-active during the session. It is this activity and focus that leads to a more rapid change and in a shorter period of time than traditional therapies.

More details about ISTDP can be found here