What is Counselling...

Have you ever wanted to explore the idea of getting counselling but were unsure of exactly what it would look like?

What exactly is counselling these day? I think the easiest way to look at counselling, or person-centred counselling which is what I am trained in, is to imagine...

• You are in a room where you feel safe and comfortable.

• You're with someone who is not a friend or family member yet you feel you can tell this person pretty much anything and they will not repeat it to anyone.

• When you talk they really really hear you and no matter what you say, no matter how dark or embarrassing it is, they will not judge you.

• They won't tell you what to do or think because they truly believe you already know the answer.

• They support you as you open up to the possibility of looking at your life right now, what you think about life, what is not working for you and why.

• They help you get clear on what you want in life and why that is important to you.

• You work together to set clear, realistic goals on what you would like to achieve in this therapeutic process.

• You work together to break down your goals into small achievable steps within a rough time that stays flexible and adaptable to whatever comes up for you.

• You chat about possible barriers to achieving those goals and ways to overcome them.

• You get given information and little practice exercises to do outside of counselling to work on new skills that will help achieve those goals.

• You check in regularly to see if you are moving in the right direction towards those goals and anything else that may be coming up which may need to be added or taken away from those goals.

• You check in regularly and feel completely free and open to chat about what is and isn't working for you both with the counselling process or your therapeutic relationship with your counsellor as the absolutely critical part of all counselling is the relationship the counsellor has with you. If you can't trust your counsellor or feel connected to your counsellor, you are unlikely to share or explore what you need to and success is unlikely.

• As you get closer to the end of the counselling process you both enjoy reviewing and reflecting on all you have achieved, the positive changes you've made and how these can be incorporated into your life after counselling ends.

• You both work towards the end of counselling knowing you can always get in touch in the future if and when you need to.

• You get to move forward with new hope having gained confidence, insight and new skills to look at life from a different perspective and know you have new awareness of yourself to identify when your emotions are escalating, mindfulness skills to ensure you stay present and regulated and coping skills to deal with what is or has come up for you but most of all....

• You have gained understanding and acceptance of who you are and why that is enough to bring compassion to yourself in your everyday life because "perfection" is a myth and who gets to decide what that looks like anyway?

Doesn't that make you just want to breathe a sigh of relief...

Hi, I'm Leanne but call me Leigh - long story, I never liked my name and there was this girl a couple of years ahead of me at school who I just thought was so pretty and just bloody cool. Her name was Leigh so when I left school all those years ago, I decided to shorten my name and spell it the same way (in those days cared because we didn't have photo ID). I am a counsellor at www.sighcounselling.com.au