Counselling and Psychotherapy are interchangeable terms often used when someone seeks the professional help of another to help them address issues in their personal lives. Counselling tends to be for specific, often recent problems and may be short term whilst psychotherapy can take longer and can involve past, as well as present, events which are creating disharmony in life.

For simplicity, I use the term ‘therapy’ to encapsulate both.

People often wonder how talking about something can change anything. They imagine it will just be rehashing old ground. However, a lot more happens in therapy than ‘just talking’. Therapy aims to help people make sense of their experiences. We all learn to act and think in certain ways as a result of our experiences and our perceptions of these events. We often split and divide ourselves into different ‘parts’ to manage our stress and vulnerability. We can appear confident on the outside but be tormented by feelings of inadequacy or sadness inside.

The way we think impacts on every aspect of our lives, from hope for the future, to our personal relationships, to how we perceive ourselves and the world in general. Exploring the beliefs, stories and behaviour patterns in our life enables us to gain insight into repeating patterns which might be preventing us from leading fulfilling, satisfying lives and achieving our true potential.