Existentially Informed Counselling / Therapy
My counselling approach is informed by relational and exploratory approaches to help you understand and make meaning of your experiences so that you can find your way through the difficulties and challenges that bring you to therapy.
With over 20 years of counselling experience, I am intrigued by our human struggle to make sense of ourselves, others and the world. For many of us, living a full and meaningful life can be a daily struggle, that can, at times, be difficult, if not impossible, to navigate alone. I can help you navigate this often bumpy, but also a fulfilling pathway to restoring ‘goodness’ to your mind, body and spirit through therapy. Drawing on a range of modalities and theories to inform my approach to counselling and therapeutic care, the foundation of my counselling approach is informed by transpersonal and existential philosophy. Additionally, I draw on attachment theory, narrative therapy, trauma-informed models of care, body-oriented therapy and creative therapy, counselling according to your specific needs and goals.
Understanding the existential counselling approach
To approach therapeutic counselling through an existential lens is to approach all human experience with interested curiosity and openness. As an existentially informed counsellor, I am curious how people engage with ideas about life and death, meaning, connection, isolation and belonging, asking questions such as:
- What do we believe about ourselves, others, and the world in which we live, and how might this be influencing our way of being in the world?
- What part do they play in our relationships with others?
How existential counselling works
Exploring the experience of living and being with oneself, those around them, and the world as a whole is at the heart of existential therapy. During a counselling session, we will enter into a world of possibility as we ask the what, who, where and how questions of life as they apply to the issues you seek to understand through therapy.
There are big questions at the heart of our existence:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
These questions often bubble away in the background until life throws a curveball and we find ourselves grappling for a way out of the darkness that a thrust into crisis brings.
By taking an existential stance to therapy, I help you consider what happens when we replace our polarising notions of ‘right and wrong’, ‘good and bad’, with an acknowledgement of the shades of grey that paradoxically and counter-intuitively can, and often do, lead to deeper understanding, self-and-other compassion, clarity of vision, meaning and acceptance of things as they are.
Book a counselling appointment
To book a counselling appointment or make an enquiry call Alyson on 0400 860 199 or send an email to thecentre4cts@gmail.com.
“I truly believe that only when head and heart work in harmony, can we attain our full human potential.” Jane Goodall