Having struggled with a challenging marital relationship, which adversely affected his performance at work, Tom struggled with anger issues and feelings of suicide and realised he should seek help, through counselling.

By offering Tom understanding, non- judgemental support and a place to talk about his feelings, he realised that he did not want to end his life, just his problems. Through time, Tom identified that by sharing his feelings and gaining a new perspective, he could go on to change his situation.

 

Being bullied at work and having no one to talk to, Sarah came to see me for counselling, stating that she felt very anxious, depressed and confused about why she was being targeted.

We spent time exploring Sarah’s behaviour towards others and the way she asks for her needs to be met. Through discussions, she was able to accept that her aggressive manner, provoked by frustrations, was actually instrumental to the problem. As Sarah discovered that by practising to be gently assertive, others responded more favorably towards her.

 

Sophie’s GP referred her to me for counselling since he was concerned that she was not coping, since the death of her husband.

Our meetings enabled Sophie to explore her feelings of grief and helped her to realise that she was able to function without her husband. Through her achievements over the next few weeks of meeting people and dealing with the daily task, that her husband used to attend to, Sophie’s confidence grew and she found herself living a happier, less lonely and more fulfilling life.

These client case studies are fictional characters and situations, yet do show typical examples of the types of concerns brought to counselling and examples of how I work with clients, as a counsellor, to help them.