Many people have preconceptions about counselling and what it entails…

Many people have preconceptions about counselling and what it entails – me included ! At the age of 28 I had never had any form of counselling, and always assumed it was basically another name for a place where people went when they couldn’t cope anymore…you lay on a chaise longue … while someone sits on the opposite side of the room with a clipboard listening to everything you have to say about your past and your childhood. However, thankfully my actual experience was very very different to that, it has taught me so very much about myself and the time I spent visiting Johnathan is something I will always cherish. Counselling is something which I truly feel everybody should have the chance to experience at some point in their life. When I first contacted Johnathan I felt as if my whole world was crumbling around me, my relationship was breaking down and a friendship which I held so very dear was also falling away from me. I couldn’t stop crying and I felt that as much as I could talk to friends and family – it wasn’t helping me to overcome this overwhelming feeling of not being able to cope and self-sooth. A very close friend of mine who had been for counselling a few years previous had suggested it might be worth me making an appointment to see if it would help. At the time I took the phone number and just put it in my handbag, thanking her profusely but not really ever expecting to make the call. But then one morning I just felt so low, I took the big step and made the call. I made an appointment for the following week, and as the time grew closer I became more and more nervous about what to expect. How do I talk to this stranger about my most private thoughts and feelings? Would this person really be able to help me? Would it be very formal and clinical? However from the moment I walked into the room and met Johnathan I felt instantly at ease. He has such a caring, calm and relaxed manner about him, as time went by I’d often kick off my shoes and curl my feet up on the sofa as I chatted to him. He became a very dear friend and confident to me. My experience of counselling was better than I could ever have imagined. To have someone as professional and intuitive as Johnathan listening to every worry, every upset, every little thing I had on my mind, and not judging me or telling me how I should or shouldn’t be feeling was so liberating. He listened to me, and then helped me to understand why I may be feeling that way, and then we talked through how I could learn that its not always good to open up and put my total trust into everybody around me, how I need to learn to love myself and take time out just for me. I started keeping a daily journal on a recommendation from Johnathan, and at the time I didn’t think it would help very much, but as time went on I found it so enlightening. When I read back through some of the early entries I wrote now, it really does make me realise how far I’ve come, and how much of an emotional roller-coaster Johnathan guided me through. I spent over a year visiting Johnathan, and I have recommended him to so many of my friends and family. I really do think there is such a mystique about counselling and what it entails, and yet really and truly counselling is something that is so unique. Everyone’s needs and experiences will be different depending on their individual situations. More than anything counselling has helped me to understand who I am, where I want to go, and who I want to be – and I am such a stronger more positive person thanks to the time and understanding Johnathan gave to me.