How do I know if I need therapy?

Read on if you are curious about how therapeutic therapy could be you useful to you.

A question that often comes up with clients is, “How do I know if I need therapy?“ This a really good question.

So let me start to answer this question by giving you a sense of what the therapy is that I deliver and then maybe then I can answer the question about whether or not you feel like you need it.

How I would describe the therapy that I deliver to my clients.

I am what's called an integrative therapeutic counsellor. I've been trained in an approach that is called ‘Person Centred Counselling’, basically I sit with my client, while my client talks about what is important to them, what they want to address. I am not present in some kind of ‘diagnosing Doctor’ capacity. It's an equal relationship. There is not the power shift that we see between a patient and their doctor.

I am literally working with my clients as they seek to work on their own personal development, to understand themselves and understand how they feel about the world around them. I work alongside them as they start to make changes that are important to them. I'm not dictating what that change should be.

I'm not telling my clients what they should do but what I might do is help the client to see how they are coming over. I will reflect back on what I've heard, and observe. I'll help the client to to get a chance to play out how they want to be.

So counselling is a lot of listening and a lot of reflecting on what I'm hearing .

As I also have a background in coaching, a lot of my clients tend to get to a point where they feel like they needing assistance in putting strategies in place to help them make meaningful changes in their lives. This tends to happen later on in the counselling process.

I recommend to my clients that they should initially seek to meet with me for six one hour weekly sessions to see if the process is really going to help them. Ultimately they can have as many counselling sessions that they feel that they need. I have clients who have been with me for three or four months. I have some clients who just do six sessions. It really depends on what they need.

I work within the ethical framework of the National Counselling Society and so whatever you, the client, brings up in the sessions, I seek to support you and keep you safe in those sessions. So in all my sessions I strive to provide a safe place to explore difficult emotions, but it's also done in a confidential way as well. I am supervised by my own private supervisor so that I can be at my best at supporting clients.

So how do you know if you need therapy?

Well, everyone comes to therapy for different reasons. So it's really difficult to answer that question directly, but what I'll try and do is give you an idea as to when you might feel it might be a good time to have therapy.

Therapy is useful if you feel like you are experiencing emotions or thoughts that are troubling you or making you feel emotional pain. If you feel like you are a little bit lost or disempowered to manage emotional pain then that may be the moment to start entering into a therapeutic relationship with a counsellor such as myself.

Every counsellor will have a different approach because whilst they may be trained in a certain way every counsellor has a different personality, a different way of working with their clients that will appeal to different people.

If you are looking for a space to improve your understanding of yourself, so that difficult thoughts and emotions do not ‘derail’ life situations for you, then I can definitely help you in that regard.

The way the process works is that my clients get in touch with me and then we have an initial session to start to understand what's going on. Then at the end of the session, we'll make a mutual decision about whether or not we can move forward together. Sometimes I have to refer clients to other counsellors who have specialist skills that could make more of a difference to these clients. It is important that the client finds the right therapist for them.

I'm not interested in racking up sessions. I'm interested in having a positive impact for my clients. So don't be surprised if you if you come to talk to me and I say to you, “Actually I don't think I'm the best guy for this”. I've got a whole bunch of other therapeutic counsellors that I know who all bring something different, that may be more appropriate.

Curious about therapy and whether or not it could help you?

If you would like to have a conversation directly with me about therapy and how it could be useful to you then please click the button below to book a short 15 minute meeting with me at a time that suits you. There is absolutely no commitment to enter into counselling and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.