All my life I have been someone who noticed the pain of others and wanted to do something to make them feel better. For some people, that might take a practical form, but for me it was always about being there, listening and supporting.
For awhile I worked on a special needs team in a primary school, but for me teaching always ended up taking a back seat to listening to a child who had come to me to talk about the difficulties they were having and how they were feeling that day. I also often found myself having conversations with people who were struggling with their lives and relationships. So I began learning some counselling skills so that I could help more effectively.
Part of my training involved having my own counselling. I worked on my own issues. I hadn’t realized how anxiety had affected my life and my choices and I discovered that practicing mindfulness made a real difference to how well I coped with stressful situations. I began an exciting process of changing the way I thought about things that had happened to me in the past enabling me to leave a lot of regret behind and move forward. I also began to trust myself and my own judgment which helped me make better decisions and I found I liked myself more. The improved relationship with myself had a knock on effect, leading to better relationships with other people. This is how counselling often seems to work – we begin working on one area but as we change, other parts of our life are positively affected.
As I developed my counselling skills in training I came to the realization that I wanted to do this as a profession. Counselling isn’t just a job. I feel very fortunate to do work that makes a difference for others and which feels authentically ‘me’.
I began seeing clients in 2014, first working in a counselling service for 5 years, then going into private practice. I have gained experience of working with a wide variety of clients and their issues. I began studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Trauma Counselling at the University of Chester. This has enabled me to work in a more effective way with trauma-affected clients.
More recently it has come to light that there is autism and ADHD in my family and this has become a particular interest for me. Neurodivergent clients can find some ways of counselling unhelpful and require things to be done a little differently in order to get the most from their sessions. This can be as simple as not having the big fluorescent lights on, re-arranging the furniture or being free to stim in sessions. I am developing my knowledge-base on how to provide the best experience I can for my clients.
When people, like you, come for counselling and share something of themselves with me, trusting me to be a safe person and to keep confidential what is said, it is an enormous priviledge and something I don’t take lightly.