What do Counsellors and psychotherapists provide?

Counsellors seek to provide you with a safe, confidential place for you to talk about what you choose to bring to them. It may for example be painful feelings or confusing issues which need space and time where you can think about your concerns in a way you cannot do with family and friends. This is time, just for you, to consider the way you feel and how these affect you and others around you.

Counsellors provide this by accepting you without judgment and by helping you make only the changes you choose or want to happen. They recognise it is not always easy to express feelings or talk about problems and so they work with you to help towards improved well being using any useful resources known to them.

In this process counsellors will not judge you, decide for you or take advanatage of you in any way or offer to cure you. They will not use your time to talk about their own problems or share with others what you discuss together except by agreement with you. For example they are required to have supervision and will agree with you in the first session that may do this with their supervisor. You can find the ethics and practice framework all ACC counsellors accept to work by here