•   Can you imagine therapeutic changes occurring quickly? When you last thought about going to counselling did the idea of spending weeks or months getting to a solution put you off?

    There is no doubt that counselling is a brain-changing experience. Research confirms that particular counselling approaches can deliver change processes in short time frames. I’m talking changes that lead to practical outcomes, immediately usable in the world outside the therapy door. So what catalysts are operating here?

    The setting
    Finding meaning
    Person-centred work
    The trusted space

    Counselling creates a supercharged therapeutic setting. The space that evolves between a counsellor and client is called the ‘therapeutic relationship’. It allows for a unique experience that I call, ‘therapeutic immediacy’. Here the counsellor is able to bring a client’s actual, lived experiences into the room, where they can be unpacked, processed, given context and experienced from new vantage points. Aspects of underlying personal experience that are not normally consciously known are discovered and made useful. Learning is already at hand.

    Counselling shines a light on each person’s unique process of attaching personal meanings to experiences. This shapes our identity and our perception of others. Focusing here enhances both our inner world and our relationship life.

    Person-centred and future-focused approaches provide rapid insight and integration. Examples of these are: Solution-focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy. The goal is to identify and map out a client’s ’preferred future’, by focusing on his or her pre-existing awareness, competencies, skills and strengths, rather than working off diagnoses or labels. ‘Personal problems’ are seen as existing outside the person in a non-pathologic fashion. This creates a wonderful experience of freedom, as opposed to feeling like a failure or the source of a problem.                  

The counselling experience is safe, confidential, private and trusted. Given this rare opportunity to self-disclose without judgement, interruption, or negative repercussions and to try on new ways of being, is the pathway to rewarding self-awareness.

So, if time is of the essence, and, you are struggling with any issues that are limiting your vitality, quality of life or relationships, come on in and let’s get things sorted, pronto.

Michael is available for Counselling sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday mornings.
Contact details: Bardon Centre: 07 3368 1300 / Michael’s mobile:  0411 537 394