Patsy Edmonds

“Are you feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, confused or depressed?” One may experience difficult times, and our ability to cope may seem inadequate. Painful experiences from the past or difficulties in the present and fears about the future may hinder our ability to find and achieve satisfaction. Counselling is a place where you can talk about issues that you cannot usually share with others, and you will not be judged. Not all people experience emotional difficulties in the same way and may not want the same kind of help. 

Initially, you may feel worried or uncertain about going to counselling; this is normal and not uncommon. It may help to lessen some of your concerns by visiting http://www.guildfordcounsellor.co.uk for more information on how I work. You are also welcome to give me a call on my mobile 07437 449 575 should you have further concerns. Alternatively, you could send me an email enquiry, make the first appointment, come and meet me, and see if you think I could be helpful to you. Thank you for visiting my web site, and I hope you have found the information useful. I look forward to hearing from you.

Counselling can help people with feelings of loneliness, isolation, unhappiness and hopelessness and for those who are looking for more meaning in life. You may be wanting to relate to others more easily, dissatisfied with your work, concerned about a family member or a child, suffering from illness, facing a crisis or a significant change or just looking for understanding and support. 

My broad training allows me to tailor our work together to suit your personal needs. Not everyone may feel ready or wish to delve deeper into their past. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are suitable for individuals who are seeking practical strategies that can be used in everyday life situations and used after the treatment has ended. The aim of this approach is to work as a team to accept what is out of your personal control, and take commit to action that improves your life. This involves learning skills to handle difficult thoughts and feelings more effectively, so they have less impact and influence over you. This approach also involves clarifying your values, finding out what matters to you, what strengths and qualities you want to develop, how you want to treat yourself and others. And taking action to solve your problems, face your challenges, and do things that make life better. This model has a sound evidence base for a wide range of mental health problems such as Anxiety, Depression, Panic Attack, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Phobias, Social Anxiety, Addictions, Self Esteem, Anger management and other mental and physical health problems. This is an approach that is offered by the NHS and is recommended by the NICE guidelines.

Appointment settings are at a location of your choice, including your office or your home, at my location or via video conference or telephone. 

The first session gives you the chance to see if I might be the right therapist for you, and for you to see whether my style of counselling feels right for you. It gives you an opportunity to ask me any questions you might have, before making any commitment. It is very important that you feel comfortable with the therapist you choose. Indeed, research into the factors most likely to lead to a successful outcome in therapy consistently finds that it is the quality of the relationship between therapist and client that will be the single greatest determinant of success. My role as a counsellor during this session is to get to know you, understand who you are, listen to why you have come, why you are the way you are and what you might need from counselling. By exploring some of the events in your past, counselling can help you find the underlying issue that is preventing you from living your life to your full potential.

Together, we will work collaboratively to identify your concerns and help you decide whether you want to work on one particular subject, which might be creating a current problem, such as relationship difficulties or work stress. In that instance, short term counselling might be appropriate. If we decide to work together, we’ll agree a regular time and day, once a week, usually for 6-12 sessions. However, if you find yourself in a position where a problem keeps arising and doesn’t seem to go away, perhaps you find yourself feeling anxious and unable to cope, then it would be helpful to invest more time in therapy and the option would be long term counselling, attending a session once a week for a longer period.

You might find yourself needing more time to work through an issue and explore the underlying reasons for the distress, particularly if you are feeling more anxious, in which case coming more than once a week might be beneficial.