What can I do for you?
Career Guidance
Career Guidance describes a range of interventions applied to help a person to move from a general understanding of life and work to a specific understanding of the realistic life, learning and work options that are open to them. It’s about helping the person to:
Know themselves
To explore possibilities
To Make a Career / Educational Choice
To make it happen
Career Guidance includes career education, information and counselling.
Career Interest Testing
Sometimes called psychometric, interest or aptitude tests, these aim to measure attributes like ability, personality and motivation which can then be used to link to specific career areas or jobs.
Career Coaching
Career coaching is a type of advice-giving and support provided to clients, to help them manage their journey through life, learning and work changes.
Life Coaching
Life coaching involves helping a client to maximise their full potential and reach their desired results. A life coach is someone who helps you identify your goals and develop an actionable plan to achieve them.
Counselling & Psychotherapy
Counselling is a type of talking therapy or psychological therapy. It involves talking to a counsellor about your problems.
I am a trained counsellor and psychotherapist and therefore I can listen sympathetically and can help you deal with any negative thoughts and feelings that you might be experiencing.
I am also skilled at helping you express your worries and concerns by processing them and enabling yourself to grow.
Child & Adolescent Counselling & Psychotherapy
I also offer counselling to children ages 5–13 years old and also to adolescents ages 13–17 years old. I have specialist training and experience in this area of work and I will engage children in their emotional world through play therapy or creative arts therapy, this can help them to express and explore their feelings and emotions.
For children and adolescents under the age of 16 both parents or legal guardians’ consent are required prior to counselling beginning. For adolescents over the age of 16 written consent form a parent or legal guardian is sufficient prior to counselling beginning.
I would expect parents to attend initial appointments for children on their own, and adolescents over the age of 13 may attend initial appointments on their own or have a parent present. Once the child or adolescent has been placed with a counsellor they would see their counsellor one to one without their parent present.
Play Therapy
“Every child is unique and special but sometimes they experience problems with feelings or behaviours that cause disruption to their lives and the lives of those around them”
Play Therapy is an effective form of therapy for children with a wide range of emotional and behavioural difficulties including depression, anxiety, aggression and issues relating to difficult life experiences such as abuse, bereavement and loss, family breakdown / separation, domestic violence and trauma.
Children use play as a form of communication in everyday life. In Play Therapy children use play to express themselves. Children enter into a dynamic relationship with the play therapist, which enables them to express, explore and make sense of their difficult and painful life experiences.
Play Therapy is helpful for children who may be experiencing the following:
Parental conflict, separation or divorce.
Issues with self esteem.
Developmental trauma (sexual, physical or emotional abuse).
Being adopted or being in foster care.
Issues of loss, such as illness or death of a loved one.
Medical issues and hospitalisations.
Witness to domestic violence.
Acute trauma such as an accident or disaster.
Learning differences such as Attention Deficit Disorder or Autism.
Physical disabilities.
Structure of Play Therapy:
Referral received from parents/social work/psychiatry/school.
Meeting with the child’s parents/carer(s) and a discussion with appropriate professionals involved with the child if necessary.
If the referral is deemed to be appropriate, a plan is made to begin sessions.
Play Therapy sessions: 45-minute regular weekly sessions. These sessions can comprise of one to one sessions with the therapist and sessions where parents/carer(s) are actively involved.
Regular review sessions with parent/carer(s) and other appropriate professionals, if it is necessary.
How many sessions are recommended?
For less complex cases, where the child is well supported at home and in their community, 7 – 10 sessions may be sufficient, with a re-referral for further blocks of therapy appropriate should the family need further support. Complex cases may require long-term intervention (12 months or more) with regular breaks in the therapy.
Play Therapy starts with a parent consultation. This is to gain more information on the child's presenting difficulties. Play Therapy then takes place consistently every week.
The amount of sessions needed depends on the presenting issues, the child, and the family system
Sand Tray Therapy
Sandtray Therapy is a form of expressive therapy that can be used by adults, teens and children.
In a sandtray therapy session, the client has access to a wide selection of miniature objects and figures which he or she places in trays of sand to create imaginary landscapes or to visualise past or present events.
Facilitated in a non-directive way by the therapist, the tactile experience of working with the sand and choosing objects or figures to position in the tray is a therapeutic experience in itself. No artistic or creative ability is required or expected.
As the client creates these ‘miniature worlds’, they may find themselves accessing feelings and experiences that could not be put into words in traditional therapy, or that are out of conscious awareness.
Play, often involving sand and toys, is the language of childhood but as adults we forget the spontaneity of play and become overly dominated by our cognitive side. Allowing our more imaginative and playful self to emerge in a sandtray process can be both revealing and healing, especially in relation to early experiences or traumatic events.
This enables clients to reflect on their life situation and explore solutions to their issues, while gaining greater self-acceptance and compassion.
For more information on any of the services listed above, please feel free to get in touch.