Stephan Solon

For the time being, I don't have availability to provide therapy top new clients.  

I am a warm, empathic Accredited counsellor, skilled and experienced in helping my clients work through difficult, sometimes painful, feelings. The qualities of compassion and respect underpin the way I work.

In the face of mental distress our response may be to 'look after ourselves' in ways that are familiar to us. We might experience ourselves withdrawing from life, fighting it or submitting to some one or thing more powerful than us. We may distract ourselves, numb our feelings or consider extreme 'solutions'. Those familiar ways might work for a while, but sometimes they no longer serve us well and lead to deeper distress. Whatever you are facing, I work with the person present with me to create a healing relationship that can help you live the best life you can.

I offer counselling to individual adults. Counselling is a confidential process that helps you explore and address what matters most to you. I have experience counselling people privately and working for a national charity, Mind, delivering counselling for the NHS. I draw upon my experience and my training as an integrative counsellor and Internal Family Systems therapist to stay with you and work through what you need to at this time in your life.

I recognise seeking counselling can sometimes be difficult. There may be a question of trust for you. Perhaps concern about the counselling process, or maybe you feel bad about needing help at all. I can help you explore your concerns and needs in an introductory counselling session, following which you can decide whether you would like to continue the therapeutic work of counselling with me.

I integrate person-centred and psychodynamic ways of working together with Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy.  I am a  registered IFS therapist, trained by the Internal Family Systems Institute (IFS Training UK).

The person-centred approach, which is client led, inviting reflection on feelings, provides the foundation to my work. I use IFS to guide my clients in internal dialogues focused on their feelings and releasing the burdens parts of their personality carry. It complements the emotion focused exploratory approach of person-centred counselling, deepening my clients' relationship with their feelings and helping them create healing experiences.

I draw on psychodynamic theory to invite exploration of the past and past relationships. I draw attention to their relevance and highlight themes and repeated patterns. My use of IFS and psychodynamic approaches brings greater direction to the process of therapy than the person-centred approach but allows my clients to continue to lead the content.

All three approaches help my clients enhance their insight into their problems. I bring them together to help my clients better use their insight to find solutions that work for them as well as support healing through the process of therapy.