Judy Cooper

I have been working since 2012 as a professional counsellor, now working only online.  This can be a great way to engage with counselling if travel is difficult or fitting sessions into a busy schedule is tricky.  All it requires from you is to have a computer or smartphone, then before a session I send an invitation to join me online. Simply click on the link and we are connected. It is also important to find a quiet and undisturbed place in which to engage with the therapy.

I am familiar with working with the issues surrounding grief and loss. Experiencing the death of a loved one is hard to bear and having a safe place to express and explore our feelings can be enormously helpful.

We can also lose other significant things in which we have invested a great deal of time, effort and emotion, for example a relationship, youth, status or a dream.

The loss of health can be life changing. Facing a difficult diagnosis can elicit confusing and conflicting feelings, both for ourselves and those closest to us. Not only do we have to deal with our own process of coming to terms with the knowledge, but also that of those who care about us.  Probably the very people we would normally talk to about our problems. 

We can find it difficult to let go of the way things were, and yet trying to hang on frustrates our efforts to move on with our lives.  Sometimes we need support in order to let go and to manage the consequent loss.  

Counselling helps people to make positive changes.  For example, lack of confidence or self-esteem can stop us being fully engaged with life and prevent us from reaching our full potential.  Having increased understanding of yourself and developing insight into your relationships will help you cope better when faced with difficult or distressing situations.  Identifying your inner resources and building on these can bring great relief from confusion, fear or loneliness.

Therapy provides an opportunity to address whatever is troubling you in a warm and sensitive space.  Any and every issue you bring to counselling deserves attention if it is affecting your ability to live life to the full. Together we can identify causes for difficulties you may have, learn to meet challenging circumstances and work together to facilitate the changes you want to make. My role is not to tell you what to do, but to help you come to your own decisions.

I understand that it can be hard to talk about very personal problems, but there is no pressure to talk about anything that you are not prepared to discuss.   Often, as therapy progresses, it becomes easier and often beneficial to broach more uncomfortable subjects.

As a first step I offer a complimentary thirty-minute session to make sure that we can work well together. There is no commitment to continue if you discover that this isn't the way forward for you.

If this is the first time you have looked for counselling, I understand how daunting it can be and try to make it as easy as possible for you.

I am happy for you to get in touch by email or 'phone and, if you feel ready, we will arrange an initial thirty minute online conversation to see if we will work well together.  There is no obligation and no cost involved for this introductory session.  If I don't consider that I am the right therapist for you or we can't arrange a mutually convenient time to work, I can help you to find someone more suitable.

Counselling can be short or long term.  In our first conversation we can establish whether you need just a few sessions to address a current problem or a more in-depth approach for a deeper, longer lasting issue, or just take it as it comes and find out as we go along.