Who Are My Clients?
Most people who seek out professional psychotherapy or counselling do so when a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction with their lives, recurrent anxieties or a trauma of some kind are felt to be beyond their usual coping strategies or support systems.
The catalyst could be a recent difficulty such as the ending of a significant relationship, a life changing health issue, or finding oneself the victim of violence or sexual attack.
It could equally be a recognition that one feels trapped and helpless in the face of recurrent patterns and habits which are felt to be limiting and undermining of one’s confidence and well-being. Often people may feel stuck in patterns of relating with others which feel less than optimum and frequently end in pain and a deepening sense of shame and failure.
Sometimes people want a safe place and some time to come to terms with major life transitions and the frequently perplexing shifts in one’s sense of self that can accompany them. For example, becoming a single person again after years of being in a relationship, becoming a new parent, dealing with in retirement etc. Ultimately one can emerge from these phases of life with a deeper understanding of oneself and a greater sense connectedness to others.
These issues may initially manifest as anxiety and/ or depression or a sense of sadness or anger that one’s life is out of step with ones’ deeper desires and intentions.
When I work with couples the relationship between the two partners is the client. Couples work is often sought when intractable problems in the relationship or how people communicate needs the presence of a skilled facilitator to interrupt habitual and problematic interpersonal dynamics and support the development of more attuned and constructive ways of relating.
The catalyst could be a recent difficulty such as the ending of a significant relationship, a life changing health issue, or finding oneself the victim of violence or sexual attack.
It could equally be a recognition that one feels trapped and helpless in the face of recurrent patterns and habits which are felt to be limiting and undermining of one’s confidence and well-being. Often people may feel stuck in patterns of relating with others which feel less than optimum and frequently end in pain and a deepening sense of shame and failure.
Sometimes people want a safe place and some time to come to terms with major life transitions and the frequently perplexing shifts in one’s sense of self that can accompany them. For example, becoming a single person again after years of being in a relationship, becoming a new parent, dealing with in retirement etc. Ultimately one can emerge from these phases of life with a deeper understanding of oneself and a greater sense connectedness to others.
These issues may initially manifest as anxiety and/ or depression or a sense of sadness or anger that one’s life is out of step with ones’ deeper desires and intentions.
When I work with couples the relationship between the two partners is the client. Couples work is often sought when intractable problems in the relationship or how people communicate needs the presence of a skilled facilitator to interrupt habitual and problematic interpersonal dynamics and support the development of more attuned and constructive ways of relating.