Mark Allinson Counselling
Muswell Hill, North London

The first session will be a chance to say what is happening for you, what has brought you to counselling and what you want to achieve in coming. I will be directed by you about what we should focus on and make some suggestions about how we might approach it. I will probably ask quite a few questions in this first session to get a good initial sense of your present situation and learn a little about your past, as well as about your hopes for the future. I will be happy to answer any questions you have about the process, about the way I work, my experience and qualifications. If we decide we can work together we will agree a number of sessions to start with.

A typical session might include exploration of your concerns, identifying feelings and thoughts. Always guided by what you need, we will talk about what is troubling you, when such feelings and thoughts occur, what triggers them and if anything eases them. I will listen to your story and reflect back to you what stands out for me. This can help clients make links between emotions, thinking processes, and behaviours, so that they can understand more clearly where these come from and how to deal with them. I will sometimes ask you questions to explore more deeply what it is you are experiencing. Sometimes these questions might be to enable you to focus on thinking clearly, and other times to focus on emotions and their impact on you. With some clients, I offer some techniques - usually tools or models for thinking about their personalities or interactions with others - to provide useful insights into problems and their solutions. And where the client feels comfortable with them, I may suggest using more imaginative techniques such as visualizations or even techniques derived from play therapy.

My approach integrates

person-centred counselling which is based on the core conditions for therapeutic change: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence (genuineness). Click for more info

transactional analysis which is a somewhat more cognitive approach based on exploring interactions with others, and whose aim is to achieve autonomy, freedom from old ways of thinking and behaving which are no longer useful to the client. Click for more info

My practice is also influenced by psychodynamic thinking, in particular about unconscious processes and how they can impact on our daily lives and relationships; I also make use of techniques based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT); and as a professionally accredited mediator, I also have an interest in the resolution of conflict through psychological awareness.

      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      

click here to email
tel: 07305 135793
 
Muswell Hill
North London
      
      
      
      
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