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| Please scroll down to find information on the following subjects. |
| What is counselling? |
| What is gestalt counselling? |
| Appointments |
| Confidentiality |
| Fees |
| Contact |
| Cancellations |
| Attendance |
| Completion |
| What is counselling? |
| Counselling
offers a safe and confidential space in which you can talk about and
explore any problems or difficulties you are experiencing in your life,
without being judged or assessed. Counselling can help you: |
| -
Express difficult emotions. - Explore specific personal problems. - Gain more awareness and clarify how you think and feel. - Gain more understanding of who you are (your identity) and how you are (your patterns of behaviour). - Identify areas of your life that are unsatisfying. - Actively make new choices and changes to your life. |
People
come for counselling for a variety of reasons. A person may be going
through a life crisis, want support with a particular personal problem
or might be interested in personal development. Counselling helps you
develop tools to find your own answers to carry forward into your life in general. |
| Going for counselling is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength that you are reaching for support to support your own wellbeing and growth as a person. It can be a real relief to share your difficulties with someone who does not know you. By taking this step, you are not becoming dependent but are looking to empower yourself so you can leave counselling with more self-support. |
| For most people, the support and insight they gain from counselling opens up new possibilities, a renewed sense of vitality and a greater appreciation of themselves and the world around them. |
| What is gestalt counselling? |
| The
word gestalt comes from the German word meaning whole or complete. It
is a form of therapy that acknowledges the interconnections of mind,
body, emotions and spirit. Gestalt is part of the humanistic school of
counselling. The humanistic school describes a group of therapies (gestalt,
person-centred, transpersonal and existential) which give central focus
to the person's perception of their own reality. The counsellor seeks to understand rather than interpret a person’s experience. Humanistic therapies believe that people are born with the inner resources and innate ability to have rich contact with themselves and others and lead satisfying and creative lives. Problems occur, however, when during our life journey something interrupts this process and we become stuck in fixed patterns of behaving and develop fixed ways of perceiving ourselves and others. |
| The aims of gestalt counselling |
| When
we deny/exclude parts of ourselves, we feel frustrated, incomplete or
dissatisfied. The major focus of gestalt counselling is to increase awareness.
The gestalt approach believes that awareness is energy for self knowledge,
growth, choice and creativity. Gestalt counselling looks to explore and
uncover how fixed patterns are still affecting our present day life.
It looks at how we deny parts of ourselves, how we are stuck in certain
ways of being and identifies how we stop ourselves from living in a more
fulfilling way. As awareness increases, so does the possibility of feeling compassion for those parts of ourselves we have tried so hard to hide or deny. As we get to know ourselves better, we become more self accepting and will probably live more fully and creatively in the present. With increased awareness we see what works for us and what does not work for us, opening up new opportunities of ways of being and increasing the range of choices available to us. Once a person lives authentically and embraces the full range of human experience, quality and richness of life are enhanced. |
| Gestalt counselling provides the opportunity to:- |
| - increase awareness by focusing on your present experience through exploring feelings, senses and thoughts. |
| - talk through distressing, confusing and unsatisfying situations. This can allow the space for you to express |
| - feelings, thoughts and beliefs that you have come to consider unacceptable, are out of awareness or difficult |
| - to express. |
| - increase body awareness as you are invited to tune into and translate your body’s language. |
| - understand more about how you relate. The sessions explore the contact between you and the counsellor. |
| - How you relate with your counsellor gives valuable clues to how you relate in the outside world and thus helps |
| - heighten your awareness of how you are in the world. |
| - experiment with new ways of being in the counselling room. |
| Session Details |
| Appointments |
| Cope
Counselling sessions are by appointment only. To make an appointment
you can contact me on: 07971 599248 or Email: lucy@copecounselling.org.uk When you make an appointment I will offer you an initial session. This gives you and I a chance to meet each other. In this first session you can ask any questions you may have about counselling. I will ask you about yourself, why you want counselling and what you would like to achieve through counselling. You can use this session to decide if you would like to continue to work with me and I will see if I can offer you the support you are seeking. Once we agree to work together, we can agree a contract, including times of sessions, number of sessions and what you would like to work on. If I am not able to offer you the support you are looking for, I will endeavour to refer you to a colleague who is better suited to offer the support you need. We would usually meet weekly at the same time for 50 minutes. You can work for a specific number of sessions or for more longer term, depending on what both you and I feel will be useful to you. |
| Confidentiality |
| My sessions with you are completely confidential except under the following circumstances: |
| a) within supervision sessions, where I discuss issues from my work with a senior psychotherapist. It is the |
| -- -way we regulate our profession. Any details my supervisor receives about your sessions are treated as |
| -- - confidential. Your full name is not revealed. |
| b) in the event of an emergency situation where I would not be able to see / contact you, my fellow counsellor |
| -- -Emily Holt would be given your telephone number so she can contact you to inform you of the situation. |
| c) when I might be legally required to break confidentiality |
| d) if I felt you might be at risk to yourself or others. |
Except with regard to supervision and my emergency contact, it is my practice, wherever possible, to inform you first should confidentiality need to be breached. |
| Fees |
| My current fees for new clients are: |
| Initial 50 minute session : £35 |
| Regular 50 minute session : £45 |
| I ask you to make this payment by cheque or in cash at the start of each session. If you do not keep your payments up to date, I will not be able to keep your counselling space open for you. Fees are subject to annual review. |
| How to Contact Me |
| If you have any queries or questions, please bring these to your counselling sessions. In the event of an emergency or to inform me of a cancellation, you can contact me on 07971 599248. There is an answer phone facility if I am not available. |
| Or you can email me at: |
| lucy@copecounselling.org.uk |
| Attendance & Cancellations |
| It is important to attend the sessions weekly to benefit from counselling. Please give me as much notice as possible if you are unable to keep your appointment. I will also give you as much notice as possible if I cannot keep our appointment. I charge £20 for missed sessions without giving 24hour notice and £40 for missed sessions without giving 1hour notice by telephone. If you miss sessions regularly and miss sessions other than for holidays, emergencies or illness, I will not be able to keep your counselling space open for you. |
| Completion |
| If you would like to complete counselling before the end of our agreed date, I encourage you to give notice in order to have time to review the work we have done. I recommend that we have at least two more sessions after you have first discussed your choice to leave. |