Ringaile
About Me
Counselling Philosophy
After I have graduated as a counsellor in January 2016, I have been working in a various counselling organisations as a Gestalt counsellor. I have chosen this modality as I believe that self awareness is very important for self actualisation and I relate to Gestalt therapy due to its being a client centred humanistic approach. The Gestalt Approach focuses on the here and now moment to fulfil a person’s potential. The philosophy works around the present moment experiences and how they are effecting
the current situation. During the counselling process and within the counselling setting, I look at a person as a whole and I believe that the body, the mind and the soul are related and interconnected;
they work together as a whole to make full sense of and for a person.
It Is Always..
Significantly important for me to be interested in what is going for the person in that moment. It is important to notice body movements in the moment, what the person shares around the feelings and what’s going on somatically inside the body, and what experience is there. If/when there are situations that arise from the past; this usually can be an invitation to re-experience again in this very moment and what in this very moment brought the memory from the past. Only the person can see and experience from his/her own eyes. It is not my place to interpret the process for my client. I am usually here to emphasise the feeling and to bring them into awareness. I am observing, noticing what affects the choices that the client makes has on their health, wellbeing and relationships. It helps with the person’s process, typical patterns of thinking feelings and behaviour. It is reasonable to consider that the patterns or daily routines that are a fixed and rigid can limit allowing awareness of reality to be present; if I allow and work with the fixed patterns, it gives the client permission to allow adaptations to changing circumstances. Sometimes the experience is very powerful and my work is to ‘hold the content’ and to ‘hold the space’ in the room.
A Very Important Tool...
For me in the therapy room is the use of dialogue with the client, which includes my verbal and non verbal contact with the person sitting in front of me. During the session it is honouring and respecting the client and going where they want to go with their story. There’s no need to impose external theory, expectations or my ideas of life. During this dialogue I am working with all the five senses; I am curious about what are they feeling if/when they not looking at me. What does the voice sound like? How do I feel in response? Do they use ‘I feel.’ language or do they generalise? Do they ask for repetitions or do they hear accurately? How do they usually present themselves? How do they use their body in relation to space? These personal experiences are more important that my interpretations. Every client is considered capable of ‘self regulation’ for example, knowing what is best for him/her self, what their needs are, so it is important that the client sets the pace of their own therapy
Contact Can...
Be seen as the process of meeting needs in order to sustain and promote life, health and growth, and health can be seen as chronic or acute interruption to the process of contact. Distressed individuals allow fewer opportunities for contact to occur and, as a result, many individuals experience anxious thoughts and feelings. They are often out of touch with what they want or need, constricted in their actions and less able to risk the intimacy of a close relationship. Armed with this knowledge, I feel it is important to respect the client’s pace or tolerate their distress until they can make contact with me and themselves.
