My Approach | Inner Voice

When things don't go quite as expected, we are often unaware how to deal with them. Life is rarely smooth, and problems arise in relationships, health, work and many other areas. While sometimes the 'solution' is outside of us, often we can discover a lot by looking inward.

And what's inside is where you meet your 'self'.

'Your relationship to people and events in your life always comes back to your relationship with yourself'. This is the credo from which I work, based on my learning and my own experience.

What is a 'relationship with yourself?' How can you have a relationship with yourself, if relationship means connecting with 'another'?

In life there are two realms we live in: the 'revealed' and the 'concealed'. The revealed are the areas of life which can be clearly identified and described. The concealed are the ones which seem less knowable. These are things going on beneath the surface of our lives , such as our upbringing, personality, culture, race, gender etc. which affect the way we act and react deeply.

Additionally, aside from the 'set' things in our lives mentioned above, life often throws difficult situations at us as well. Each hard experience we go through carries within it a choice to grow and learn- or to deny and escape. While facing adversity can be really challenging, there is often a 'potential energy' hidden behind our defences and fears which can help us rise to meet the challenge.

Getting to know these concealed parts is a big part of developing a healthy 'relationship with yourself', and talking therapy is a great way of doing it. While talking about these things can sometimes be difficult, it can also give us a new sense of confidence and hope which can be really rewarding.

Getting to know and value yourself, to help you thrive, not just survive.

My goal in my counselling practice is to help my clients, as part of dealing with whatever it is they bring, to develop a healthy relationship with themselves. Having gone through a form of mid-life crisis of my own, I feel that talking therapy has helped me be more true to myself. I know what it is like to hide, to cover up, to feel lost and out of control, and I also know what it is like to face a fear and come out the other side. Just as talking therapy has helped me relate better to myself, my aim is to help my clients learn to relate to their unique selves in a healthy way.
Although not exclusively, my particular area of focus is male clients between 35-50, who are struggling with the mid-life years. Having been trained in both integrative humanistic counselling, as well as spiritual self-awareness from a Jewish Orthodox Torah perspective, I try to bridge the worlds of body and soul in my work, with a particular focus on understanding my client's unique process and personality. I am always keen to learn about new perspectives, and I have counselled people from a wide variety of backgrounds in my work for the NHS.
I work on a one-to-one basis with anxiety and depression, and associated conditions. Sessions are highly confidential, and my work is supervised by professional supervisors. I work within the ethical framework of the BACP.