* Professional therapeutic counselling for adults
Specialist practice - Emergency Services Personnel
*Bespoke specialist consultancy services - psycho-educational occupational programmes/ workshops, conference speaker The stresses of life and modern living can sometimes be difficult to cope with, and talking to friends and family may not always be enough, or they may not quite ‘get’ what
we are on about or how we really feel. Life events that come out of the blue, such as health problems, road-traffic accidents or house fires can impact upon us, perhaps ‘shattering’ our lives, leaving us unsure of who we are, or question how on earth we are going to pick up the pieces. Working in the Emergency Services can offer it’s own unique traumatic experiences which can feel isolating – perhaps your colleagues don’t understand, or you feel embarrassed to share how you feel with them as maybe it appears that they’re coping ok, or perhaps you don’t want to traumatise ‘outside’ family and friends with what you have seen. If you feel distressed, who do you turn to? While attending calls for help can be hugely satisfying and bring about positive feelings, sometimes, it can feel like you are the ‘trauma magnet’ for ‘bad jobs’ or ‘shouts’. Either a one off incident or an accumulation of experiences can affect us, not only from attending an event, but also from the aftermath such as media involvement and reporting, and having to attend court. For example, it’s not uncommon for responders to feel guilt – at wishing they could’ve done more to save or help someone. Although it’s quite common to want to avoid thinking about what has happened, sometimes it can feel quite the opposite – completely overwhelming and as if you can’t think about anything else. Talking through what has happened can help. Most people find it helpful to talk with someone who listens and doesn’t judge us especially when we feel vulnerable and/or it may be difficult to cope with a traumatic incident or life experience. Counselling is a way of helping you to gain understanding and insight to make sense of a situation or experience, and to develop emotional resilience and coping so that personal change occurs. As a qualified counselling therapist, I offer to work with you on a one-to-one basis in a confidential environment. We will work together in a way that best suits you and the experiences that you want to talk about. To bring insight into what has been happening, we may look at your thoughts and feelings and how you have previously perceived life events, how you interact with the world and our relationships/ how you relate with people. We can look at why you may be experiencing distress following a trauma and make sense of it by referring to understanding of how trauma can impact upon the brain, the mind and the body. Using all this information, we can work together to look at coping strategies and maximising how they work for you, thus helping to manage stress. To enhance your well-being trauma counselling can also bring about change by helping you to feel less fearful or down, get off the ‘emotional rollercoaster’, feel re-connected to people and the world; recover the social ‘you’, overcome helper guilt, deal with grief and loss, and together we can work with any intrusive memories and problems with sleeping, eating, drinking and so on to recover normality and move towards a satisfying life. The technical bit;
I am an integrative therapist, which means that I work using a variety of different counselling perspectives including:
• Person-centred
• Psychodynamic
• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Solution focused
• Creative methods
I am also a currently serving paramedic in an NHS ambulance service, with over 15 years’ frontline experience. Currently I work with adults, and specialise in counselling for emergency services workers. Due to conflict of interest, I am unable to offer counselling if you are currently working for SCAS. I have a small private practice in Swindon. There is some flexibility for me to work around shift patterns, however I usually prefer to practice on a Thursday afternoon. Please contact me for further information. It’s important to give yourself time to come to terms with a traumatic event. So, in the immediate aftermath, counselling may not be needed. Rather, good practical and emotional support from colleagues, friends and family may be just what’s needed to help get you through and help you to cope. If however, you don’t have this support or feel things are difficult for you a few weeks’ after the incident, then counselling may be something you’d like to consider. What is important is that you come for counselling when you feel ready to talk – it has to be your decision.
