What do we mean by ACIES?

The dictionary definition states: The full attention of one’s sight, hearing, mental perception, discernment, as directed towards a particular situation or object.

What does it mean for you?

I use various approaches and interventions to support my clients to achieve a state of well-enough-ness meaning a state of functioning and coping that builds on a solid foundation of self-awareness and on towards resilience.

How can this be achieved?

By strengthening your:

Agency

Communication

Insight

Embodiment

Spirituality

Start living the life you deserve to live.

Your life. Your way.

How can counselling help?

Counselling can help you understand yourself better and the way you think, which will help you develop a clearer understanding of your situation. For many, the fact that counselling offers a safe and confidential space to talk gets people to the place of well-enough-ness.

Your counsellor will help you explore your own insight and understanding of your feelings, thought processes and struggles providing you with the tools, which will help you to resolve them on your own. But they won’t usually give advice or tell you what to do.

Counselling is a journey, and it takes time and consistency to work effectively. Because of this, many people opt for regular counselling sessions to make the most of the process. Counselling offers you the space and freedom to explore your own thoughts with someone impartial, who will listen and support you without judging or criticising.

The more equipped with information you are, the easier it progressively becomes to navigate your way through any difficulties you are facing, so you build your resilience and can come through to the other side feeling more positive. Counselling can also help you better understand other people's point of view, which can shed light onto the way you interpret words or actions.

After we help you discover what you want, we'll work together to find the very best way of achieving it.

Identify your goals & achieve them

What You Can Expect From Your Counsellor

You can expect someone who is interested in listening to your concerns and in helping you develop a better understanding of them so that you may deal with them more easily and effectively. Your counsellor will take you seriously and be willing to openly discuss anything you wish to discuss. Expect your counsellor to focus the session on you, and not on others. Because counsellors have different beliefs about how people change, they differ on how much talking they do in sessions, whether they ask you to do 'between session work' and their focus of discussion.

If you have any questions about what is going on, by all means ask. Counsellors have no "magical" skills and will be unable to solve your problems directly for you. Your counsellor will want to work with you but will not do for you what you are capable of doing for yourself. Except under unusual circumstances, your counsellor will maintain strict confidentiality about you, and will openly discuss this with you.

Your Responsibilities in Counselling

Your main responsibilities in counselling are to attend your regularly scheduled sessions, talk about what is bothering you as openly and honestly as you can, and complete any tasks or 'between session assignments' you may be asked to do. You are expected to let your counsellor know if you are unable to make it to a session. Most counselling will require you to try something new or a "different approach." Another thing your counsellor will expect is for you to be willing to experiment and try things without jumping to conclusions.

You are also expected to let your counsellor know when your problems have been solved as well as let your counsellor know if you don't feel like you're making any progress. This latter point is most important: your counsellor is most interested in your benefiting from counselling.

Making Counselling Work For You

Common difficulties in counselling

One of the most difficult steps in counselling occurs before you even see a counsellor for the first time. Deciding to seek counselling is the first step in change. Once this decision has been made, the mechanics for change have been set in motion. In the process of changing the way you think, feel, or behave, you usually must try out new ways of doing things. This can make you anxious or frustrated.

Also, in the course of counselling you may come to realise that things you once thought of only in a positive or negative way you may see differently. The challenges of pushing on your limitations may also cause your frustrations, but with commitment and practice, you will find that you can stretch your limits and find new and exciting aspects of yourself.

Tips on how to benefit from counselling:

Be ready to focus on a specific problem or issue. Be prepared for your sessions. Attend your sessions and take an active part in them. Complete (or at least attempt) any inter session work. Tell your counsellor if you don't think you're being helped.