what is counselling?

there is an ongoing debate about the differences between counselling and psychotherapy

generally speaking, counsellors have a shorter training than psychotherapists (although they can train up to Masters’ level with a university); they don’t need to have had extensive personal therapy, although some have; counselling can be seen as a short term process, although it is sometimes longer term; may focus on one particular goal; is more likely to help with a specific difficulty, for example, a relationship breakdown, bereavement or a difficulty that is not necessarily rooted in the past.

counselling involves a safe, supportive and respectful therapeutic relationship which can help you

feel listened to
come to terms with recent events
increase your self-awareness
understand your part in relationships
identify & change unhelpful behaviour patterns
set goals and achieve them
make new choices and decisions

anger and rage counselling

in my opinion, anger is the most misunderstood emotion, and because of this, people can find it difficult to accept it in themselves or to express it in a way that is helpful. As a consequence anger can cause much pain in relationships.

anger is an important form of emotional intelligence. It signals the presence of a variety of issues for example, that I have a need that isn’t being met, someone is overstepping the mark (my boundaries), attempting to manipulate me…etc. It is a positive and necessary emotion which, when acknowledged, harnessed and appropriately expressed is our ultimate protection and ensures equality in relationships.

I help my clients in two ways. One is to support them to manage their anger and rage symptoms; the second one is to help them to connect safely with, and express, suppressed anger and rage. Clients learn to differentiate between anger, a ‘here-and-now’, constructive emotion with a moderate level of arousal; and rage, a ‘there-and-then’, destructive survival strategy; rage consists of a tangle of different, unexpressed emotions from the past (trauma) and old resentments; clients may present with a high level of arousal (hot rage) or low level of arousal, cut off from self or others, (cold rage) or a mixture of both.

more information is available at

empathic-anger-management.co.uk

working contract

therapeutic process: I carry out an initial assessment interview to see if we both feel we can work together. We then agree on a specific number of sessions. At the end of this we jointly assess our progress and decide whether further sessions will be helpful. If we cannot work together wherever possible I will assist you by providing alternative contacts.

sessions: are weekly at a regular time; they last for fifty minutes (or 1 hour for couples). If you are late arriving for a session we will terminate at the usual time to allow me to fulfil my other appointments for the day.

contact: I have a telephone answering machine. If I need to contact you, I just leave my name and number. If this is not acceptable please let me know.

confidentiality: I treat all information disclosed to me by you as confidential. However, if I believe that you are in danger of harming yourself or others, or that a child is at risk, I reserve the right to inform outside agencies but would not do, wherever possible, without discussing this with you first. If you disclose information about certain criminal or terrorist offences I have a professional obligation to tell outside agencies without informing you first.