What can you expect from counselling?
To be welcome as the whole you​ and to find an environment where you can safely explore all sides of you. People come to counselling for many different reasons. Some feel there must be something wrong with them, possibly because that is what others have told them. Sometimes people feel at odds with their environment, with other people's expectations, of them, or with how they feel.
You might think you know exactly what your problem is or maybe your problem is that you have no idea what is going on, only that you don't like how it makes you feel. Maybe you just want to understand yourself better, unleash your potential and become your best possible self. In my experience there is usually a unique mixture of personal circumstances at play. For me the most important aspect of counselling is to offer a space where you can develop a clear sense of what exactly is going on for you and what your options are. The idea is to help you to find a greater clarity and with that bring the balance to your life that you need to find your personal solution.
Confidential environment
In order to allow you to freely explore what is going on for you, counselling provides a confidential environment, where you can talk about anything. I will listen to you in a non-judgmental way and will explore with you any area of your life that you want to examine and understand better.
You are the expert
​
The person-centred approach is based on the trust that people tend to know best what is right for them. It can be very hard to see it clearly though, if one is right in the middle of it and feels overwhelmed by unwanted thoughts and feelings. This is where I can help you to explore, to make sense and to find the clarity that you need to find your solution.
Acceptance
​
I will accept you and your version of what is distressing you. I believe it is important that you feel it is ok for you to freely explore what is going on in your life.
I believe people heal and grow when they get the chance to comprehend fully what is happening and feel that this is understood and accepted.
Warmth
Going to counselling is tough. Nobody wants to deal with the issues that make them look for a therapist. But if that is where you are at, I will offer you warm and understanding support to help, so that this journey of self discovery will not be any harder than it needs to be.
​
Trauma
Any form of mental distress can often be connected to some form of trauma. This could be a mild disturbances of childhood development or a specific traumatic events at any time in life. Often unprocessed memories of distress are what makes it hard to deal with the complexities of life in the here and now. I have experience of helping people processing traumatic memories.
Does it really help?
Yes. Of course, I would say that because why else would I even offer this, but if you are interested, there is a lot of interesting literature that shows that counselling is effective. It might seem surprising but the long term effectiveness of talk therapy is in fact better established than that of a lot of medication.
​
About me
I am a fully qualified Counsellor and Psychotherapist in Hackney in the East End of London. I have experience helping a wide range of clients (individuals and couples) who came to counselling for many different reasons.
​
The type of counselling I practice is called person-centred counselling, which is a form of talk therapy, which emphasises the importance of exploring the unique circumstances of a person's experience of distress and rather than trying offer out of the box solutions for specific "problems".
Before I became a counsellor I worked as a speech scientist first as an academic then for a company providing speech recognition systems. I also worked as a software engineer and a AI developer. My main interest was always to make sense and understand the complexity of the human condition. Today I bring that curiosity and my experience to help people to make sense of the unique and complicated conditions of their lives.
​
I provide an open and accepting space where people can explore their life circumstances and find their own unique solutions to what life throws at them.
I am a Registered member of the British Association for​ Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
I am also a Trustee of The Person-Centred Association (TPCA).
​
