What do we actually do in counselling?

Counselling involves two people sitting down together and having a chat.

It differs from the conversation you would have with a friend or a parent, in that the conversation is focussed only upon you the client, with the aim of helping you to deal with the situations you are facing. No medication is involved.

The counsellor comes to the room with a professional body of knowledge and a range of therapeutic skills which are incorporated into the conversation in order to identify problem areas, and to find new ways of dealing with them. Often personal growth is an outcome. When counselling has achieved its goals, the client leaves feeling stronger, more confident and very much happier and at peace with themselves and with the people close to them
a counselling session

Therapeutic Approaches

At Acacia Counselling and Psychology Centre we use a range of therapies, selected according to the client's needs. In particular we use:

EMDR

Developed in the USA by Francine Shapiro and introduced in 1989. This therapy has been recognized as the best treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Australia and the USA and is widely used in Europe, and indeed throughout the world. It is now incorporated into Graduate training programs for professionals dealing with traumatised patients.

Recent research has shown that individuals can be traumatised at any age: even tiny babies can retain the somatic memories of abuse or neglect. Sometimes very minor events can have a traumatic effect on normal development: for example bullying at school. These traumatic memories from childhood are targeted by EMDR and desensitized and reprocessed efficiently and effectively.

It is not surprising that recent research is now being undertaken to demonstrate the effectiveness of EMDR in relation to many other psychological problems.

At Acacia Counselling and Psychology Centre we use EMDR and its spin off Dual Attention Stimulus to facilitate fast change over a vast range of personal problems.

These include, but are not limited to:

CBT

CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was developed in the United States in the 1960's and 1970's. It is based on the idea that our thoughts create the feelings and emotions we experience, which in turn, lead to the behavioural responses. Faulty thinking can therefore produce unhappiness and worry, and result in angry impulsive actions or sadness and misery and despair. All the practitioners at Acacia Counselling and Psychology Centre are trained in CBT as its high level of effectiveness has strong research based evidence across a wide range of psychological problems and disorders.