Living with depression can be a very painful and distressing place to be.  Depression can take over and leave people feeling both physically and emotionally drained.  People often feel very alone and isolated, and as though no one fully understands what they are going through.  Counselling helps to provide people with a space where they are heard and supported through a very dark and painful time.  It also helps people to gradually re build and gradually put their lives back together.

No matter what type of abuse is experienced or witnessed, it can be very distressing for a person to go through.  People often only think of physical or sexual abuse, however emotional and mental abuse can also leave very deep scars.  Counselling can help people to work through the trauma of the experience that they have gone through and help them to re build their self-belief and confidence.  It can assist people in their understanding that things were not their fault and give them a space where they can be heard.

Relationships can often be extremely difficult and challenging.  Couple’s come for counselling because they are struggling to communicate, or because they are having issues with intimacy or their sex life is being affected.  Sometimes one partner has been unfaithful and people want to be able to work through that with a neutral person.  A counsellor can really help couple’s to start hearing one another again, to listen and support each other and to improve their way of relating.  On the other hand counselling can also be beneficial if individuals or couples are going through a divorce and they want someone to support them through this.

People often become addicted to something as a way of trying to get some kind of control in their lives.  The irony is that the addiction leaves them feeling more out of control in the end.  Whether it is exercise, drugs, gambling, shopping or sex, people turn to focusing on one area as a diversion from what they are experiencing.  This could for example be a relationship break down,  bereavement or loss of a job.  Either way counselling can help people to look at what they are really feeling and experiencing, and assist them as they work through this and as they give up their addiction. Counselling supports people in the process of letting the addiction go.

Whether a bereavement is sudden or expected, it is highly distressing and traumatic.  People feel under great stress and strain when someone they love dies, and no matter what the circumstances, grief can include a wide range of emotions from sadness to anger.  Loss can also be the loss of a relationship after a marriage breaks down for example, or the loss of an animal, a home, a job etc.  It is not only bereavement that can leave people feeling empty and alone.  Counselling can really help people as they go through the stages of grief and ensure that they have the support that they need as they work through all the different emotions involved.