When you’re overwhelmed by painful emotions and distressing thoughts, the best way to start the process of restoring your mental health is to share your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust, someone who cares about you. The first skill counsellors learn is how to listen – listen in an active, empathic way – and its effectiveness is something we should never take for granted.
As a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy I’ve always been proud of the high standards it requires of counselling in their working with clients.
The BACP has just published a new “Ethical Framework” for its members. Essentially it a detailed set of commitments that we undertake to maintain with and for the people who come to us for help.
You can read the new framework online here. It is worth spending some time digesting its contents, especially if you are considering exploring counselling yourself as it gives you a strong sense of what kind of treatment you are entitled to expect from a counsellor of therapist.
If you want to find a real human being, someone you can talk to in confidence and with no moral judgement – and if would like to find out more about the face to face counselling service I offer in North Hertfordshire, you can contact me here.
David Housham Counselling is my new counselling service for North Hertfordshire and beyond, initially launched in December 2017.
“It’s just talking. What’s the point of that?”
Most types of counselling or therapy that people encounter have their roots in what’s known as “talking therapy”.
David Housham Counselling 