Hello and welcome to my website. My hope is that I can help you with the current issues in your life and my passion is to help people find their true selves.
Within my counselling practice, I offer a safe quiet environment for you to take time out of your lives to explore you and how you might be feeling. I offer a talking therapy service, where you can feel understood and unjudged.
I work from Markham House on Broad St, Wokingham. The clinic has smart comfortable counselling rooms to help you feel as relaxed as possible.
I have a wide range of experience working with couples, individuals, and young people. I draw on my own past experiences and learning theories to counselling to help understand and offer solutions to your problems.
I am an integrative counsellor which means I combine serval theories to best meet your needs. With the use of these theories, I believe everyone has the answers to their problems within them but struggle to find them because of strong emotions and feelings blocking this. My job is to help you tap into this.
Please contact me for more information or to book your first session using the following methods, or visit my contact page
Call/Text: 07846 477726
paul@pauljamescounselling.co.uk
More Information About Counselling
The word Counsellor has several definitions but in this article, we will look at the definition of a Therapeutic Counsellor.
In the UK a counsellor is usually a qualified person. They will have studied counselling at Diploma or a higher level on a course approved by a professional body such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Most reputable counsellors are a member of this body.
They may work for a Healthcare agency such as the NHS, local mental health services such as Social Services or a not-for-profit provider such as MIND or offer there services privately. There will usually be a waiting list for NHS and free services depending on the area you live in, so you may choose to pay to see a private counsellor. Whichever you choose it is important to look for a counsellor who is a member of a professional body such as the BACP so that you can be assured of the competence of your counsellor.
Counsellors do not have to be qualified or a member of a professional body, for example, religious ministers who may offer counselling to their parishioners from a particular religious perspective.
Why would I want to see a counsellor?
Life is full of challenges: these may relate to past experiences such as abuse or other forms of neglect we experience as children or problems we face as adults such as coping with loss, unemployment, difficulties in relationships, isolation and loneliness, addictions to alcohol and drugs or behaviours like overeating or a compulsion to look at pornography. It may be that we just feel depressed or worried about things that other people seem to cope with or we may feel that our life is not how we want it to be and want to develop the skills we need to change.
All these are reasons why people might seek a counsellor and more people than ever are using counselling to help with their problems – 20% of the UK population sought some form of counselling in 2006.
What do Counsellors Do?
For most counsellors, the most important aspect of their work is listening. They aim to offer their clients a safe and confidential environment in which they can talk about their difficulties (counselling is also called Talking Therapy) The thing that many people find surprising when they first see a counsellor is that the counsellor will say very little. We are used to people offering us advice and suggestions on how we can change things or do better in our lives, counselling is different because it aims to help you explore your problems and develop your own understanding of how they might have developed and what you might want to do about them. The purpose of this approach is to enable you to gain insight into yourself and explore different options for change.
This is not to say that a counsellor is silent or just a sounding board for you to talk at, they will use questions and make suggestions as to how you might look at a problem or feeling from different perspectives, they may ask you to try different behaviours that they feel might help you or they may suggest other services that can help you.
Counsellors will sometimes have a preferred way of working (they might call this a model or therapeutic approach) for example Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which is a very popular and effective approach for problems such as Depression or Phobias. An alternative approach might be Person Centred Therapy where the emphasis is on building a relationship between the therapist and the client in order to explore a wide range of aspects that affect a person.
Finally, please note that Counsellors come from many different backgrounds and you will be able to find one that helps you, but it may be that you see several before you find the one for you. It is a good idea to do a little research on these different therapeutic approaches before you see a counsellor in order to choose one that feels more comfortable for you. BACP offer a brief guide here