Mary Moore

I work with individuals (16+), couples, and families. I have been a Counsellor for over 20 years and I am a Relate Certified Counsellor. Counselling is an interpersonal process involving therapeutic (helpful) conversations. Talking in this way is helpful in itself and involves using the therapeutic relationship with me as your counsellor to help you. Exploring the "stories" of your life can bring about new understandings, new perspectives, and opportunities for the changes you want. We would, in this safe environment, explore your emotional life and improve your emotional agility to deal with what life lands in your path.   

Sessions are held at private consulting premises in Wakefield  with  parking . My counselling approach is LGBT+ Gender diverse positive.

I have been trained to work in an integrative way and have developed a personal model of counselling incorporating several counselling and psychotherapy theories and approaches. This combination includes:

Person centred approach - based around the notion that each person has the strengths and resources to grow and the need to understand the individual perception of reality.

Psychodynamic theory - how the person's past affects their present.

Attachment theory - how the nature of our early attachment patterns influence our later relationships.

Systemic approach - how the network of the person and others influences them. How the person's relationships with themselves helps or hinders them at different times.

Narrative therapy - how we construct stories about our lives to make meaning of our experiences and how stories can be  changed.

Solution focused brief therapy - focus is on person's strengths and resources, and on solutions rather than problems.

I would working with you to explore the influence of the past on your life and current problems, the impact of your interpersonal contacts (family, friends, others), and your hopes for a preferred future. I also work with the "stories" that we all construct about our lives - the "now", the "past", and the "preferred future". 

The first session is a consultation to discuss what has been happening in your life that has brought you to be considering counselling as the next step for you.  Also, to explore how appropriate counselling with me would be for you and what you are bringing. If we agree that counselling is right for you at this time we would make a start on how we might work together. This session gives you the opportunity to check out how you feel about ongoing counselling. From then on, we can negotiate the frequency and number of sessions. However, there is no fixed number of sessions. I normally suggest weekly sessions in order to keep up the momentum of the counselling process. 

My work with you would be conducted in a confidential, sensitive, non-judgemental, and collaborative manner. We would agree on the areas that you want to work on and review these as the counselling progresses.