Whether we like it or not there are times when we all struggle with a variety of personal issues, challenges and dilemmas, which if not addressed effectively can have a negative impact on how we choose to live our lives. These problems could be preventing us from being as effective as we would like to be and as a result we are unable to move forward in our lives. When this happens we may decide to solve our problems on our own or turn to friends or family. Occasionally though, perhaps when a problem feels too sensitive or complicated we may choose to seek independent help and support. Counselling provides this necessary support and is designed to help us enhance our lives, validate choices, promote personal growth and bring about positive change.

You may come to counselling for all sorts of reasons. A significant event, such as difficulty at work or a relationship breakdown might be the prompt. Or there could be a desire to identify and break unhealthy patterns of behaviour. You needn’t even be clear about your reasons for starting counselling – many people experience a general sense of unhappiness, anxiety or dissatisfaction and use counselling as a way of finding out what these feelings could mean. In other words there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ reasons – there merely has to be a willingness to take a closer look at those concerns that we cannot easily make sense of by ourselves.