Charlotte Croxford

Hello I am available for sessions on tuesday and wednesday evenings.

Hi, I’m Charlotte!

I’m a qualified Counsellor with lots of experience with Mental Health.

Are you struggling with own Mental Health? Or are you looking to improve your wellbeing?

I offer a quiet, comfortable and relaxed environment to give you the space to explore those difficult topics, help you learn new coping mechanisms and look at changing your boundaries.

Qualifications

BSc in Psychology and Criminology

NCFE Helping Skills L2

NCFE Counselling Skills L3

Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling Level 5

A Little More About Me

My counselling experience started at university studying Psychology where I took a module in counselling. That was quickly followed by two courses, one in Helping Skills and the second in Counselling Skills. I then completed my 2 year diploma in Therapeutic Counselling at the end of 2015. As part of this I worked for a charity providing low-cost counselling for three years. Here I saw many clients - often referred through Mind - with a variety of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, OCD. In addition to this I have a Level 1 in Reiki and enjoy bringing meditation and mindfulness techniques into my practice.

Aside from the professional qualifications I’m also on my own journey. I have experienced my own bouts of anxiety and depression which have changed my whole outlook on life. I was often looking for external validation, always wanting to be perfect and gound vulnerability very difficult. Having my own coaching and counselling through these intense periods made me feel less alone and made me realise that my feelings were, and continue to be, not only valid but so important. Being open and honest squashed the power held over me and my biggest reward has been to completely trust myself.

What is Counselling?

Counselling comes in many different forms but the main objective is to help you understand what you’re feeling, how your behaviour is having an impact on your life and resolve any issues that you may come across. 

What is it like?

The main focus of the initial sessions is to build a relationship between us. It's usual for you to have a number of sessions, I'd recommend at least 6 to really get to the core of what you are feeling (it's not always that easy to uncover quickly) and building new strategies to make yourself feel how you want to going forward.

There are lots of different counselling styles, what is yours?

My counselling practice is the integrative approach. It essentially means I do a mixture of everything. I’m trained in Humanistic [more about that shortly], Psychodynamic and CBT [this often helps with those of us who are goal orientated]. I am also trained in Gestalt therapy, which focuses on bridging the gap between what we are aware of and what habits are unconscious. As I have expressed in my bio, along with mixing these, I love being creative; bringing some play into what can sometimes be a challenging time.

However that said I do have a main focus: Humanistic, it's also commonly referred to as ‘talking therapy’. It's a much more natural and gentle approach which is important if the feelings brought up are difficult ones. It also focuses on people's individualistic nature and there are no categorisations of any kind! It can be extremely helpful for getting to root causes of those issues causing you pain, upset or in some way affecting you.

So that is a brief summary of my approach to counselling however if you have any additional questions - just ask 💟

The First Session

This will be informal. I will likely ask you why you have decided to seek therapy and also any precious experience of therapy you have.

We will talk about the practicalities of the sessions including timing, frequency, canellations, confidentiality. 

What if I feel worse afterwards?

This is a very common question. And the answer is: sometimes to delve into your feelings can be difficult. I often describe it like a bottle of pop (fizzy drink if you aren't familiar with my colloquialism!) If you've kept things in for a while, so perhaps you are feeling anxious or down, when we start talking there may be many emotions that rise. However once these have been reflected on then you can look to start to let them go and move forward. But that is what I'm here for, to support and provide assistance when you need it.