Counselling
Counselling covers a wide range of skills and techniques to provide the client with direct support and immediate feedback, sometimes in the form of information and practical advice. It offers a supportive, confidential and non-judgemental atmosphere to talk over problems. Listening and reflecting helps untangle the web of feelings and experiences that comprise a particular situation.
My favoured therapy is the client-centred approach developed by Dr Carl Rogers. The basis of which is that everyone, given the right conditions, can achieve a positive self–image and realise their full potential for self-fulfilment. Cognitive and relaxation techniques are usually combined with counselling.
I also find Carl Jung’s explanation of the Collective Unconscious a powerful counselling tool. He explains how our conscious and unconscious thought patterns are developed according to the environments in which we grow up, which is common sense. However, he amplifies on the fact that all humans have universal qualities which are innate within us. To acknowledge these is very therapeutic. Examples are the ability to be loving, kind, happy, confident, calm peaceful, intuitive, to name a few