Counselling is about asking for help, recognising that something in your life needs to change and you cannot do it all on your own. Seeking counselling is reaching out for a helping hand, often while feeling reluctant to acknowledge a need for help.
You may not know what you wish to change but still know that something has to change, whether it’s the way you deal with a situation or the situation itself. It may have happened yesterday or decades ago. A memory long since forgotten may have resurfaced and be challenging you.
I cannot guarantee success, as much as I would like to. What I can promise is to listen to you with an open heart, to help you explore your feelings and find your own way forwards. Working together I would seek to provide you with a safe enough space for you to find the confidence to explore what is going on for you.
The first few sessions are about making that space together, whether online or face to face. It involves my not judging you, nor making your life decisions for you. I may laugh with you, but never at you. I seek to understand who you are and how your life is for you, helping you to develop trust in me, in the relationship, in the weekly space and the work that is done in it.
I say “safe enough space” deliberately as the counselling space is not safe from pain and for some clients, their supposedly safe place is the most dangerous of all. Counselling can be scary and unpleasant as it can involve digging up memories and feelings that you may have buried or facing unpleasant truths that you would rather hide from. It can make you cry and it can make you feel worse before you feel better. It is rarely a quick fix, although it can be. Part of the job of a counsellor is to keep you as safe as possible while you navigate these difficult areas, to help you look at them without being sucked in to them.
Based in Brentford I offer online counselling or face to face sessions in South Ealing (on 65 bus route). Please email me kath@barefootcare.co.uk or ring/message me on 07905 353 496 to have or arrange a 15-20 minute chat to get to know each other a little and see if we fit. Full price sessions are £60 but concessions are currently available.
Do look around my website for more details of me, the person-centred approach I follow, and how it all works.
Barefoot 