Services

How Counselling Works

When you come into a counsellor's office, you bring a lifetime of experience -- complete with family, friends and values that are unique and central to your life. Counsellors respect that and strive to understand your daily life to assist you. Counsellors certainly do not have pre-conceived ideas about what is best for you, but can help you discover that and begin the process of change.

Counsellors are temporary people in your life. They hold a mirror to you and give you respectful feedback about what you tell them. They draw on the life stories of others for what works and what doesn't work in life and relationships. Counsellors offer support and understanding, and new approaches to solving problems, in a safe comfortable atmosphere.

A number of approaches are used in counselling, depending on your issues. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is typically used in treating anxiety, stress and depression. This approach helps to restructure our thinking when it becomes irrational, leading to negative moods or anxiety. You can learn to change the way you think in order to change your feelings or the way you behave. Making the connection between moods, thoughts and behaviours is the first step towards making positive life changes.

Hugh MacMillan's work is primarily informed by Narrative practice and ideas, a therapeutic approach that has grown from the work of therapists like Michael White of the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia and David Epston of Aukland, New Zealand. David, incidentally, attended high school in Peterborough, Ontario!

The Narrative approach sees counsellors as witnesses to the stories of the individuals who consult them, and it encourages counsellors to reflect those stories back to you in ways that assist you to react differently in overcoming problems. You are considered to be an expert on your own life. More information on this empowering approach is available at www.dulwichcentre.com.au. Check it out!