Bournemouth Counselling - What is Therapeutic Counselling?

Therapeutic Counselling

What is Counselling?
	First of all, I want to lay to rest some popular misconceptions about Counselling. Counselling is NOT: Being told who is right or wrong. Being judged good or bad. Being told how to solve all your problems. Being taken over by someone who will run your life for you. An instant solution to long-standing problems Therapeutic counselling IS about being given the opportunity to explore, in a safe environment, difficult issues that face each of us from time to time throughout our lives. It is about being listened to in an open, honest and above all non-judgmental manner, enabling you to find new strategies for handling situations that always seem to end up with the same unsatisfactory outcome. Portia Nelson wrote a short poem, which I feel illustrates this process:
	AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS I I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in. I am lost ... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out. II I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. III I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit. My eyes are open I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. IV I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. V I walk down another street.
My Role
	My role, as your counsellor, is to take that walk with you, to help point out where your own ‘holes in the sidewalk’ may be, and work with you to enable you to choose which streets may be a safer bet for you. As a counsellor, what I don’t do is give you the answers, for it is a fundamental truth of the counselling process that the answers lay within the client. Only you have those answers, but it is my role to take the walk with you and help you through the sometimes difficult decision-making processes until you discover a better way of being. To quote Paul Simon, “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.” (The Boxer) – I enable you to re-connect what you already know about yourself with that which you may have consciously or unconsciously disregarded, and from that comes understanding. What you do with that understanding is up to you!