Life Transition and Change

My therapeutic approach is to abandon stale, dated and rigid technique.

The therapeutic process should be determined by the uniqueness and needs of each person seeking out a solution to his or her problems - not by rigid textbook diagnosis and prescribed treatment processes only. These academic approaches are often devoid of the crucial human elements of love, care, and connection required for interpersonal understanding, change, healing, and growth.

My Counselling Background

Self Esteem, Identity & Purpose

Recovery from Substance Abuse

No lasting, meaningful change can emerge from a therapeutic space in which honesty, love, care, trust and mutual respect is not the bedrock of the relationship between client and therapist. We become fellow travellers, sharing and exploring feelings of sadness, frustration, anger, guilt and other distressing emotions. Yet, importantly, the therapeutic hour is often filled with feelings of hope and relief, moments of humour, and the recognition of progress through change.

Self-esteem & identity.
Relationships & family. Inter- personal communication.
Anxiety & depressed mood.
Lack of meaning & purpose.
Fear of and resistance to change.
Self-destructive behaviour in an attempt to avoid difficult feelings.
Processing trauma.
Dealing with feelings of guilt.

Disability Support

DO YOU

OFTEN FEEL THAT...

My Counselling Philosophy

Your life seems to be devoid of purpose,
You are no longer excited by what you used to love doing,
You resort to self-defeating behaviours to escape reality,
You tend to avoid people and events,
You feel emotionally isolated,
Your life predicament seems inescapable, intolerable and meaningless at times,
You experience anxiety, or perhaps you feel depressed at the possibility of never experiencing a sense of feeling fulfilled.

Do you hold the belief that asking for help reflects personal weakness ....?

Asking for help requires courage.

It is the first step towards change and growth - a more meaningful and purpose filled way of living.

Life is difficult.

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

M. Scott Peck, author of "The Road Less Travelled"

For the greater part of my life these words were of no value to me - the first time I read them I put the book down. I was stubbornly holding onto my inherited views: Life is predetermined; external realities dictate my choices; the notion that I could struggle with aspects of my life implied weakness and a lack of gratitude. These sedimented, ingrained, fear driven beliefs would ultimately lead to prolonged unnecessary suffering and a life devoid of purpose, meaning, and joy.

Only once I was driven by sheer desperation did I make a different choice - a predicament I could have avoided by finding the courage and humility to ask for, and more crucially, accept help.

I have since learnt that there is no shame or weakness in struggling with life's challenges - they are merely obstacles to be accepted as life's realities. When I was challenged to change myself, and to stop my futile attempts to re-arrange reality, my life changed remarkably.

I have since come to embrace my realisation that "the world MUST NOTHING. People MUST NOTHING". I alone am responsible for the conduct and outcome of my life. This was the day my life became authentic, filled with purpose, and my personal struggles were flooded with meaning. This was when a calm sense of curiosity about all my life encounters returned.

I have since lived my life according to the truth that my choices are my responsibility, that accepting and assuming this responsibility has released me from a life I had constructed for myself, a life built on fearfulness of change, and avoidance of challenging institutionalised dysfunction.

These are some of the principles I bring into the therapeutic process - a process informed by my life experiences and struggles, studies, reading, research, and extensive work as a counsellor and therapist in clinics, as well in private practice.

I love my work and I cherish the occupational privilege. I feel an immense amount of gratitude toward those who have, and continue to contribute to a meaningful life experience. More than anything I value the shared trust I experience with my clients during every therapeutic hour.

We are fellow travellers.