Why Did I Call My Practice "Cactus" Counselling?
It seems like quite a sharp name for something that's so soothing, doesn't it?
When I qualified and was finally ready to build a web site, I did some market research to see what sorts of colours and imagery were popular among my colleagues. During my research I noticed a trend: almost everybody used gentle colours and imagery on their web sites, business cards, and leaflets. Almost all of them used soft shades of grey or blue for their text, invariably against a white background.
Then there were the pictures. The same few objects kept showing up: seedlings, water, reiki stones... Now, I want to be fair: all of these objects have gentle and healing connotations, so why wouldn't they show up here? However, it felt like everyone was taking great pains to be gentle. While I can be gentle, my style is more pragmatic, so I decided to try something a little bit different: cacti!
But why cacti? The cactus has adapted to thrive in harsh environments. Now, what does counselling help you do, again?
Using cacti also made it far more fitting for me to use the tag-line "for when you're feeling prickly". That's a reference to anger in counselling. Clients tend to do their best work when they're fed up with the status quo and are ready to put their energy into making a change, so I want to invite those who are angry about things staying the same - and getting the same results as they always did - to come and work with me.
Photo by Egor Komarov at Pexels.
