Andrea Rickman

Many personal problems, life experiences and traumas can lead to you feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious or unable to cope with life. Sometimes talking to friends and family does not help and you feel the need to work things through with someone unbiased.You might have attempted to talk to others about your problems but feel you are burdening them or they seem uncomfortable, not knowing how to help. You might fear you will be judged or misunderstood which can make it hard to open up but there is often a desperate need to talk through difficult experiences and to have your feelings heard and validated. Engaging in therapy can help you to deal with the emotional and psychological impact of traumatic losses, rejection, bereavements, betrayals, abuses, any life event that has been challenging and painful. If a past experience or something that has happened more recently is still negatively affecting you and your relationships with others it is worth trying psychological therapy.

Whether this engagement is for short term counselling or longer term psychotherapy, my experience and awareness, enhanced with intuition and empathy, enables me to provide the safe, containing environment necessary for your psychological issues and emotional pain to be addressed and worked through. The therapeutic process helps you to move on from painful difficulties, initiating self awareness and psychological change which has a positive impact on your sense of self helping you to lead a more fulfilled, healthier and happier life.

Having been in practice for over twenty years, I am very aware that the decision to enter personal therapy often comes at a time of desperation, feeling deep emotional pain, sometimes after months or even years of trying to deal with it or get over it.

It could be more of a feeling that there is a particular issue that needs some attention, or you have become aware of certain patterns which are repeating in your life. Maybe a recent loss, bereavement, difficult relationship or experience has made it harder to cope with ordinary life, the reasons and issues which bring people to counselling are too diverse to mention.

There are times in life when professional help is needed to deal with psychological difficulties, internal conflict; struggling with mental and emotional pain can be very debilitating. Others may not be aware of/be able to comprehend the extent of the pain you are going through, which makes it all the harder. It can be minimised and suppressed, you may try and carry on, put on a ‘mask’ or a brave front but without help, the trauma or hurt remains unresolved and continues to have a negative impact. 

Everything is interconnected, we may ‘split’ mind and body, thoughts and feelings but we can unconsciously use our bodies to express emotional pain, suffer from stress related illnesses or have symptoms which have a psychological component. You may sense or know on a deeper level that you do need to talk, to be heard, that it is necessary to acknowledge your emotional wounds for them to heal. As you explore things with an empathic other, who has the training and skills to facilitate insight and understanding, you can feel safer knowing that the relationship is confidential and you are free to express anything, without judgement.

My approach is integrative, meaning I use different psychological models which are woven into a unique coherent approach to suit the individual/couple, this includes Humanistic/Existential and Psychodynamic theoretical models.

My first session is an initial FREE meeting of 30 minutes to allow us to meet in person, via an online video platform or by phone.

This gives you an opportunity to talk through why you are seeking  counselling and will help us both to decide if working together will be beneficial. 

Following on from this free meeting, I then send you a Booking Link which takes you to my online Calendar so that you can book in for a one hour Assessment session in one of my available spaces, if you wish to do so. 

In this Assessment session of an hour I ask questions about your life overall, childhood, relationships, school, work, what is bringing you to seek counselling now, what you want from therapy.

Ongoing sessions are not structured as such but I guide you by asking open ended questions, reflecting things back to you, helping you to explore whatever you need to gain greater insight and awareness. This enables you to become more aware of your repeating patterns and unhelpful thinking habits, beginning the journey of deeper knowledge of your self. Therapy is learning about your Self, who you really are/can become, rather than believing the internalised view of yourself that stem from difficult experiences/attachments/relationships.

Living in the present enables a happier, healthier sense of self to emerge, learning to practice self compassion, rather than self criticism, which keeps us stuck in the past/projecting into the future, therapy can help us to be Here Now.