Counsellors never offer advice

Most counsellors are opposed to giving advice to people as they believe the client is perfectly capable of sorting out their own problems and issues with the counsellor taking the role as a guide or fellow traveller along the way. Counsellors are not experts regarding your life, you are. However there are times when advice is given in the form of information for particular issues re-assuring the client that others have experienced similar problems. Sharing information might take the form of giving the client reading material, web site referral or psycho-education regarding a particular problem. Sometimes working with a younger client may mean the counselling is more directive than when working with adults.

Counselling cannot make you better

The aim of counselling is to help you make yourself better or help you to manage your symptoms more effectively. Counselling has been shown to work well alongside more medical approaches. Always check with your G.P if you are feeling unwell or have a history of mental health problems to see if counselling could help you.

It's just women who see a Counsellor

Counselling is for everyone, men, women, couples, families, groups, adolescents and children. Counselling is an inclusive activity where you are respected irrespective of your gender, background, sexuality, age, class, ethnicity or social status.

It's all talk and no action

It is true, Counsellors do encourage their clients to talk about their experiences, thoughts and feelings. More importantly though the counselling session is like a reflection of how the client interacts with others in the outside, wider world. By working in the here and now with a therapist, clients have an opportunity to practise new approaches and ways of being, embracing change in a safe, controlled environment. Often what happens outside the therapy session or between sessions can really help the client achieve change and a sense of well-being as the action taken inside the therapy room is applied to wider living.