It is often a fact that both counselling and certain ‘life issues’ can have a stigma attached to them. It is not always easy or acceptable to acknowledge that you have a problem or that life in general is difficult or is getting you down. It is however a fact that life is difficult and that sometimes it can get on top of us (all of us). For me, I believe that this is where counselling comes into a point of genuine use. The support systems in life for most people come in the form of family or friends. Although this can be great and invaluable at times, connections with family or friends normally always contain an emotional factor that can often restrict true openness to and honesty about what is happening for you – be that due to fear of upsetting the other or for any other reason. The point of value for counselling is that the counsellor exists as an independent and unconnected link to you and your life. An experienced counsellor will help you to explore who you are; your emotions, thoughts, behaviours, and experience with others, and will offer you feedback in relation to this. He or she will not hold the emotional attachment that family or friends might but will have invested a desire and commitment to work with you and to help you to resolve your presenting difficulties.

Although it may not seem like it, there are ways that will enable you to regain control of your life and your issues, whatever they are. The first path to this is awareness; awareness of where you are now and what you are struggling with, awareness of where these issues might have first developed, and awareness of what you are doing now or what is happening in your life which might maintain these issues. If you are able to identify the cause and maintenance factors of your problems, then you are in a much stronger position to deal with the issues as they manifest in your everyday life.

The following list shows the type of issues that people may bring to counselling,
abuse, alcohol addiction, anger problems, anxiety, bereavement, cancer, communication difficulties, depression, divorce and separation, family conflict, grief, guilt, helplessness, identity issues, low mood, low self esteem, miscarriage, panic attacks, phobias, relationship problems, sadness, self-harm, sexuality, stress, suicidal thoughts, terminal illness, trauma