Counselling - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Group Psychotherapy
A. What is Counselling?
Counselling provides a safe space where you can reflect on emotional problems in your life that are difficult to deal with. You may want to make changes, but find that something is getting in the way. Often it can feel hard to sort things out on your own.
The Lorrimore counsellor will help you understand how past experiences and worries about the future may be affecting you. The counsellor will not give advice, but will listen closely and reflect with you on what is going on in your life.
We practise psychodynamic counselling, which is an in-depth way of looking at feelings where the relationship between client and counsellor is central. Current difficulties, which may be rooted in the past, come to life in the counselling room, where they can be thought about and understood. In this way you can explore how you relate both to others and to yourself, and consider what changes you want to make.
What sort of problems can counselling deal with?
Sometimes problems go back for many years; sometimes they may be more recent. Counselling provides a safe environment in which to grapple with both old hurts and current anxieties. People come to us with many difficulties. These include: low self-esteem, anxiety, panic attacks, stress, depression, troubled or abusive relationships at home or at work, bereavement, divorce, childhood abuse and eating disorders, are among the many issues brought to counselling.
Counselling is not always an easy process, and needs commitment. Strong feelings can come up and you may feel vulnerable or angry. However, your counsellor will help you understand these experiences, and help you move forwards towards a fuller, happier life, with improved relationships with family and friends.
Seeing a counsellor is not a sign of weakness - it means you are taking responsibility for your own wellbeing. It takes strength to look at yourself, your situation and think about possible ways forward.� Each weekly session lasts for 50 minutes.
B. What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)?
CBT can help you to change how you think ("cognitive") and what you do ("behaviour"). By focussing on the "here and now" problems and difficulties, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind now. These changes can help you to feel better.
CBT has been found to be helpful in treating: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, agoraphobia and other phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
By focussing on thinking, your therapist can help you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts. This makes it easier to see how they are connected and how they affect you. Because some situations cause you to have negative or distorted thoughts and feelings, they may make you act in ways which you don't like, which upset you or, which upset people close to you. CBT can help you break a "vicious circle" of thoughts, feelings and actions, by recognising the thoughts which cause your distress. When you see the way your particular sequence works, you can change these patterns - and so change the way you feel. CBT aims to get you to a point where you can "do it yourself", and work out your own ways of tackling these problems. Each weekly session lasts for 1 hour.
C. What is Group Psychotherapy?
Group psychotherapy members present the same problems and symptoms as those seeking individual counselling. They struggle with issues of low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, problems with relationships and coping with the impact of childhood difficulties. It provides a rich place to explore the dynamics of family relationships and current relationships in the ‘here and now'. The group provides understanding, support and time for reflection, which is needed for a person to explore and work through feelings and difficulties. There is the chance to reflect on repeating patterns of behaviour as played out in the room.
For some, a group may be more appropriate and less threatening initially than individual counselling. The group is not time-limited, at present, so people can stay as long as they need to. Commitment is significant, however, and each group member is asked to commit to a year in the first instance. The weekly session lasts for 1.5 hours.
- Confidentiality. Everything discussed between you and your counsellor is confidential and is never revealed to anyone else, except with your express permission. The only exception is if your counsellor feels that you are at risk of harming another person, especially a child.
- Ethics. The Lorrimore works to the Code of Ethics of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Coordinator Tel. 020-7703-7806 counselling@lorrimore.org.uk
Last updated 25th January 2008
