Emotional Counselling - Counselling for Depression and Anxiety
Counselling and psychotherapy can help people suffering from depression, anxiety (general/phobias/social), grief, or anger and other behaviour problems. Talking therapies are completely natural and safe. Read more about how Counselling can help heal emotional pain.
Life throws many surprises at us, and while we cannot predict the outcome of any situation, we can take control of how we respond to certain situations and triggers. With my supportive and empathetic counselling sessions, you’ll learn about why you feel and respond the way you do, and how to exert your power of choice over how you respond to whatever life may throw at you. So, if you have been searching for counselling for anxiety, depression, or grief, please get in touch so we can discuss how I can help you.
Counselling for Depression
Are you looking for a Depression Therapist?
If you are looking for a depression therapist in Perth, or Mandurah, I can help. If you are further away I offer phone or online counselling. Depression stops you wanting to do anything, and depression thrives in isolation. Depression stops you for reaching out for help and, the more isolated and inactive you become, the stronger the depression gets. The good news is that reaching out to someone is your first step on the road of recovery. Depression can be lessened by human connection. Contacting me will immediately reduce your isolation and then the next steps can get a little easier.
There is good evidence that counselling helps people with depression. There is also good evidence that some medications help people with depression recover. And, there is evidence that people who take medication and have counselling at the same time do very well. We are all different, and different treatments suit different people. The thing that is true for all of us is that is is very difficult to overcome depression without any help at all. Depression takes away our energy, our drive and our hope. This makes it almost impossible to do any of the things that might make us feel better. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength and hope.
When we meet we can discuss your lifestyle to see if there are any little changes you could make that would improve your mood. We can look at your thought patterns to see how thought patterns may be driving your depression. Sometimes, people have a very strong inner critical voice destroying their confidence and constantly making them feel bad about themselves. I find a holistic approach that is person centred works well because depressed people need to be really heard to connect. I have had a lot of success helping people with depression, so please do not stay locked in it's trap. There is a brighter future waiting for you.
Therapy for Anxiety
Counselling for anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, social anxiety and anger management.
The first step in managing anxiety is to understand it. What makes you anxious - social situations, animals or insects, public speaking, or another specific activity like a work task, or flying? Or is it a generalised anxiety and you are just always anxious? When in the day is it worse - morning, or evening? When did it begin, and has it got worse? And, how does it feel? Do you feel shaky, or sweaty, and does your heart pound? Or do you feel it in your stomach? Do you freeze and become immobile? Do you have Panic Attacks? Or, do you put things in a specific order and need to double-check doors are locked, and lights are off? Do you lose your temper? Anger is a stress reaction too. Understanding the triggers, and how your respond enables you to start taking control back.
You can begin planning your days to reduce the triggers, while learning easy ways to switch-off your body's automatic stress responses. Once you feel you can control the physical effects of the anxiety, I can help you reduce the behavioural effects of your anxiety by increasing your window of tolerance to the triggers in the safety of the counselling room.
Understanding your own thought patterns can really help too! Just because we think something does not mean that it is true. I can help you to identify and change unhelpful thought patterns that drive your anxiety. A Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach usually requires between six to twelve sessions.
If you have already tried a short course of CBT but it was not successful, do not panic. Because anxiety is often triggered by something that happened in the past, psychotherapy to help uncover and recover from that event is very often required. This is slower work because you have to build up trust in your therapist before entering into deeper work. I am trained in Transactional Analysis psychotherapy so I can help you to explore your childhood hurts and fears safely, and I can help you to learn how to reassure and manage the frightened younger part of yourself. Decisions that were made in childhood about what is scary can be reviewed and reconsidered from an adult perspective. Adults are bigger, and they have more life experience, resources, and power, so you may choose to make a different decision now.
Grief Counselling
Coping with loss and grief therapy
When you suffer a loss the emotions can be overwhelming. Grief is not limited to the loss of people, but because relationships are often complicated the loss of someone may bring up an avalanche of complex feelings. People can also grieve for someone who is still here but is not the person they knew any longer. When we grieve for someone we have lost because of a brain diseases like dementia, or an injury, it is often called 'ambiguous loss': grieving for someone who is alive. I have also worked with clients who have experienced a major grief reaction after the passing of a loved pet.
Grief affects everyone differently. Cultural norms, rights of passage, learned behaviour and expectations all contribute to how an individual experiences grief.
Sometimes people need a helping hand as they pass through the storm. There are a number of theories and therapies that can help explain what someone is experiencing. Often, knowing that what physical and emotional symptoms they are experiencing are perfectly normal and will pass is a great relief. Grieving people sometimes worry they are going mad.
For some people, especially if the relationship or the death was difficult, the grieving process can become complicated and people get stuck. When this is the case, counselling can help.