What is counselling?

Counselling is a special kind of helping relationship between a client (an individual, a couple, a family or a group of people) and a counsellor, whose role is to listen actively and without judgement, to support and also to challenge with respect and understanding.

To describe counselling, I like to use the metaphor of a journey. As your counsellor, I become your guide or travelling companion, accompanying you throughout your inner travels, which can, at times, be rough, difficult to manage and painful. As a client, you choose your destination; and as your counsellor, I cannot take you to it but rather can help you reach it. I can give you the opportunity to discover new landscapes, stations and unexplored paths along the way. I can be your "fellow traveller" and together we can create a path leading to your chosen destination. I can help you find within yourself the resources you need to get there, even if, right now, you may not be able to access them.

I believe counselling can help you be at peace with your emotions, your body, others and yourself. The aim of counselling is to help you identify and remove the obstacles in your life that prevent you from being the fulfilled, autonomous, responsible and free human being you were born to become.

Counselling gives you the opportunity to experience a relationship with another without the fear of being rejected. Some of us have not known this since early childhood. When we are accepted, understood and respected by another, we can begin to do it for ourselves. We can then listen to ourselves and believe in our own ability to trust ourselves and others. True healing can then take place and a sense of well-being follow.