Many people come to a point in their lives where they know they are not able to carry on as they have been doing. Sometimes a particular life event like a relationship breakdown or a close bereavement can be the last straw. Or it may be the realisation that dependence on alcohol or a drug is destroying everything good. Or just a sense that the life one is living is not right - not tolerable or just not fulfilling. I offer psychotherapy to individuals who are experiencing a wide range of difficulties such as anxiety and depression, addictive and compulsive behaviours or relationships problems either intimate relationships or difficulties arising at work.

Psychotherapy provides a confidential and boundaried professional relationship through which understanding of one's present difficulties can be sought. Most of the people I work with have never before told their story and allowed time to develop trust in another person so that they can reflect on their lives and develop a new understanding of who they are. Different ways of acting in the present and future will begin to emerge and obstacles to adopting new ways of behaving can be addressed.

Past experiences can leave us with emotional wounds which can disable us in particular ways and cause us to react to present situations in ways we find baffling and upsetting. Telling the story of our lives often allows light to be shed on experiences which we have not been able to reflect on and understand. There are often strong feelings of anger, fear or pain associated with past hurts which need to be experienced and shared with someone else so that the intensity of the hurt can begin to lessen and healing can take place.

Counselling can be sought to address similar difficulties to those expressed above. As a rule counselling is appropriate for addressing a particular problem or life event such as bereavement or in the aftermath of crime or other trauma. Psychotherapy is appropriate for dealing with longer term issues, when current problems are entrenched in long standing and repeated patterns of behaviour or when a recent trauma causes intense and prolonged suffering indicating that older wounds underlie the reaction.