Counselling - How I Work

Horsforth, Leeds (LS18), West Yorkshire

Steve Cordingley, Counsellor & Counselling Supervisor

How I Work (The Longer Version)

Reconnection with Experience, Facilitating Discovery, Change & Transformation

• Initially, the most obvious part of my job is to create an environment where you feel safe enough to explore yourself and your experience of the world and others without fear of judgement or conditions and to reflect my understanding of what you think and feel and how you have made sense of the world and your life.  This will then help you decide what you feel is helpful and productive for you and what could be different if you were to initiate change.
• I don't think it is my job to make my clients happy.  Rather, I believe that it is my job to help them move to a position where they can make themselves happy, reach fulfilment and make progress toward their goals, their potential in their lives, their work, their relationships.
• When something is no longer working or you would like something to be different, whether it is wanting to feel better or wanting something in a relationship, work or home life to be different, therapy can help when change is not happening on its own.  Of course, seeing a therapist can often be about change in you, and that can be a daunting thought.
• Many of the people I have worked with have taught me that therapy often helps them make progress by helping to clarify two main things:
• what happened that resulted in me arriving here?
• what is my next step?
  • This could seem like your therapist is providing answers to questions, but I feel it is more that your therapist helps you to discover your own answers.
  • I hesitate to say this, because change isn't always welcome, but I think perhaps the journey to discovering ourselves and our experience of our world almost always results in change.

First Steps

The first session is where you assess me and my working methods and I do my best to review and understand your reason for coming to see a therapist - let's say it is an assessment session on both sides.  If you decide to go ahead and arrange further appointments, we agree our work together, what the purpose of the work is, how often and when we will meet, what the cost per session will be, when and how we will review progress, what my cancellation policies are and so on.

Early stages of therapy are often focused on developing a relationship and building trust.   During this time, my role includes gaining a deeper understanding of your experience and difficulty and I might offer ideas based on my emerging understanding.  As I check each aspect of my understanding of your situation with you, a deeper understanding often develops and, from this, you can usually begin to make the progress you are seeking.

After this, the work tends to evolve in a way that is specific to your particular experience of life, current difficulties or your personal goals.

Counselling Confidentiality

See Counselling main page