Cactus Counselling
Counselling based in Clifton, Easton, and central Bristol
Counselling based in Clifton, Easton, and central Bristol
Counselling is a working relationship in which the counsellor provides a space where you can safely be vulnerable. This allows you to experiment with new ways of being - whether that's exploring your sadness, anger, or fear, or making sense of new circumstances. Therapy involves either acceptance, or change.
Every counsellor is different. Some will feel like a better fit for you than others, and finding the right counsellor or psychotherapist for you can make a huge difference to the experience you have. Some of us are softer and gentler, while others are more pragmatic; some are cognitive or analytical in our approach, while others are less 'in their heads' and take a more somatic (body-centered) approach.
Ultimately, the goal of counselling is for you to feel better prepared to cope with your world when you leave, than when you started.
The short answer to this is, pretty much everybody - with a few limitations. It's always worth approaching me and asking.
The people I'm least able to help are:
My specialities are:
Please note that I am capable and happy to work with more than just these six issues. Click on each link to read why I'm a specialist in each; those are the issues I can offer the most lived experience with.
While qualified counsellors and psychotherapists are highly trained, I firmly believe that it's important they have "lived experience" of, or similar to, the main issue you want to bring. For example, I've experienced a low level of disordered eating (I'll comfort eat if stressed), but there's a difference between that, and living with anorexia. My training has given me some knowledge of how to help somebody with anorexia, but there are things about anorexia that only the people who've lived it, will know.
Conversely, I'm estranged from my parents by my own choice, so have lived experience of that. My diploma talked about things that apply to estrangement - Parent ego-state analysis, the Drama Triangle, escape hatch closure, injunctions... but only someone who's lived it can tell you about the actual experience, such as the dilemma of staying because you might get an inheritance that might finally drag you out of poverty (which is very likely if your parents were damaging enough to your development that you're even considering estrangement in the first place), and leaving the dynamic and perhaps, starting to heal (though support will almost certainly be inadequate; most people won't have any idea of the magnitude of what you're healing from, or what you need, and will likely punish you for being withdrawn, slow to trust, frugal, etc., so perhaps it's better just to stay and get that windfall after all).
You deserve a therapist who understands your lived experience, firstly because you might be paying a lot of money, and for the cost, you deserve better than "I'll give it a go", and secondly for your own safety. Therapists should only accept clients when they can offer clinical competence working with the issue you're bringing.
At The Berne Institute
At The Link Centre
