Elise Gwilym

I work flexible hours Monday-Friday until 7 pm and am sometimes available until 8 pm. I offer counselling face-to-face, by phone or online, based in Caernarfon, N Wales. I offer a 20m free initial consultation by phone.

I am available to counsel in English and in Welsh and please check out my website, elisegwilym.com for more information. Chwiliwch o dan 'More' am y tudalennau Cymraeg ar elisegwilym.com.

As a counsellor, I have worked with the NHS Primary Care Counselling Service and the North Wales Women's Centre (Rhyl), where I still work. I integrate different counselling approaches in my private practice to treat you as a person, not an issue. I am an ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) trainer and run courses for MSc counselling students and charities. 

As a former Music Therapist, I supervised trainee Assistant Clinical Psychologists for 14 years as part of an NHS Clinical Psychology Team which gave me the skills to counsel, facilitate and really hear both young and mature adults. 

During this time I also counselled and trained parents of children and young people on the Autistic Spectrum as part of my daily work with the Child Development Centre, Bangor, and I understand familial commitments. My work at Ty Gobaith Hospice gave me insight into the stresses of disabilities and life-limiting conditions.

My flexible working hours mean that I can accommodate you if you need to change the session time due to your commitments. 

Are you feeling stuck, going round in anxiety loops or want to find a way forward? I specialise in anxiety, relationships, working with children and couple counselling in sessions that are about you and what you bring. I can counsel in Welsh or English. 

Together we can explore how your issues started and how to release yourself from the patterns past and present relationships may have given you. My safe, non-judgemental counselling uses elements of different approaches in a holistic, integrative approach. This can help you deal with emotions and thoughts better and live in a more integrated, stable way. 

I have enabled many clients to get out of their fear and anxiety loops, even long-standing and chronic anxiety (please see 'The ACT Course' details for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on elisegwilym.com). For the last 6 years, the World Health Organisation has recommended ACT and not CBT for anxiety, trauma and addiction. ACT is the most successful approach with up to 86% improvement whereas CBT plateaued some 10 years ago. 

I have trained with CRUSE in bereavement counselling and use creative approaches within my work. 

This is some of the research I have been doing recently to be current and informed.

In 2021 for my Master's degree, I explored the causes of depression and its possible solutions (see my YouTube video, 'Dancing your way out of depression').

In 2022, I explored understanding your past in terms of loss of safety, self-worth and your significance when growing up and more recently, as negative experiences may cause harmful messages to yourself. I also attended a 2 day CAT course (Cognitive Analytical Therapy) that focused on relationship patterns. I learnt how to use the CAT model that connects our hopes, fears and attempted resolutions.

In 2023-4 I created and ran my ACT course to great reviews. 

The most recent research shows that it is not only the relationship that is the most important factor but also the skills and insight the therapist can offer. Formative relationships and the role taken on within the family are insightful for you to understand. Trauma work may need resilience-building as well as taking back judgments or coming out of alignment with false identities. I have worked extensively with neuro-diverse people, with identity and spirituality, and am interested in the discovery of more of your true self. I work in a person-centered way. 

I offer talking therapy that gives you 50 minutes each week or every two weeks, to explore your life in a safe, non-judgmental environment. Counselling need not be a long process to be effective but everyone needs to go at their own pace. Six to twelve weeks is usually the norm to see results in your life, but everyone is different. There are no quick fixes, however, I work in a very effective way as I combine exploring the issues in your life to see where their roots lie, with showing you the skills needed to deal with any anxiety and your own particular thought processes in the here-and-now.

People come to counselling for differing reasons, from being able to cope better, to understanding more about themselves. My question is always 'Is this working for you?' as positive outcomes naturally need to be seen to be working in your life. 

If you have any more questions about the way I work, please do get in touch.

I offer a free initial 20-minute consultation by phone. 

In this consultation, you can ask me any questions about how I work and share what you would want to gain from counselling.

If you decide to start counselling with me, I will email you a counselling agreement which I will ask you to sign and return before the next session. I take payment by bank transfer, to be paid after each session. There is no obligation to a certain number of sessions and you are free to leave anytime. 

In your first session, I will explain how we can work together. There is no need to start talking straight away unless you want to as I find that me 'doing the housekeeping' usually helps you to settle into the first session in a more relaxed way. I will explain how I work and what we can expect from each other. Then I usually start by asking you what brought you here and what you would like to gain from counselling.

If I find that I need to listen to your story in the first session, so I may not talk much while processing and thinking about the possible directions we could take. I will discuss these with you in the following session. You may talk a lot in the first session if you need to tell me everything, or you may not want to talk that much. That's ok. We take it at your pace. I will be making notes on a big page of A3 that I Whatsapp or email a picture of to you afterwards - only if you want -  so that we both remember what you said and you can see the notes I make. This allows you to talk without thinking that you have to remember what was discussed and for you to have a look at it during the week afterwards. Notes are kept anonymously in a locked filing cabinet. 

As a former Music Therapist, I can work creatively and intuitively in a way that really hears you. We can also find a way to assess your progress that will suit you. This could be a regular review, or keeping a mood tracker or reflective diary.