Paula Howel

• Are you experiencing anxiety, depression, low mood or uncertainty? Counselling with me will involve exploring your patterns and the themes of distress that keep cropping up for you.  My Counselling approach is Person-Centred whereby I use these skills to suit you and your current circumstances to build a strong, trusting and therapeutic relationship. I also utilize CBT techniques and tools, if you want a more structured approach to learning skills, for the present and your future. I practice coaching alongside my counselling, which offers you a structured, goal-setting orientation to the coaching to provide you with skills to manage your life, whether you're experiencing anxiety, low mood or uncertainty.
• Do you think the same negative thoughts that cause you to feel low in mood? This can cause the development of a negative self-image. A broken or fragile self-image can heal. Your self-image is how you perceive yourself or how you perceive others see you. Does this ring true with you? If so, you can change the quality of your life, by exploring your inner self-perception. We can explore historical messages that you've internalized. Create behaviour changes to aid in raising mood. If you are hopeful, that is a good start. 

• Creative Counselling

• A vast part of my counselling services is to offer a creative counselling model. I am bringing, art, poetry, sound, movement and more into my practice. This type of counselling adapts to the needs and interests of my clients, increasing engagement, and building better therapeutic relationships to improve outcomes.

  Creative counselling combines talking therapies with creative interventions, it compliments my foundation training in Person-Centred Therapy. Many clients share that they find themselves looping in and out of the counselling process over the years because of not being able to find a way to fully communicate their experiences and feelings, with several reasons for this. Creative counselling empowers clients to express their words and emotions through any medium that feels right to them.

• Compassionate focused therapy

• I am also trained in CFT or Compassion Focused Therapy which is a counselling therapy that allows you to look at your life experiences in a realistic way and from a non-blaming stance.

  To alleviate suffering

  develop a compassionate mindset towards yourself and others and accept compassion from others.

  Its structured format is methodical and reassuring, allowing insight and growth. You will find your negative thinking will decrease, the self-criticism and self-loathing from feelings of guilt, shame and anger will subside, and you will begin to open up to a compassionate way of being.

  You will learn about the three systems: threat, drive and soothing systems. These will develop an understanding of how our tricky brain works.

  Following my journey of self-criticism, I can vouch for the effectiveness of this training. It will guide and help bridge the change from your negative thinking and feeling to a way of finding, peace, calm and the ability to self-soothe. The effects are profound.

• I help to overcome anxiety and depression by:
• Facing your fears
• Learning to cope effectively
• Inducing calm
• Lifting mood
• Getting back to yourself
• Enjoying life again
• I offer an opportunity for you to embark on a trusting relationship that can support you in achieving your goals. If you are new to counselling or coaching it can be a daunting prospect to choose a counsellor and attend an appointment, hence you will be welcomed in a friendly manner to open up and discuss your issues. Counselling can be very effective if you are willing to work towards change.
• My skills have been developed by working for MIND mental health charity, as an adult counsellor, dealing with mild to moderate mental health issues. I have experience as a mental health specialist mentor at USW where I supported students to achieve their qualifications. Now I run a private practice from my home. I have teaching experience and worked as a tutor and supervisor.

  Visit my website if you're interested in self-image and style counselling 

  www.paulajane-stylecounselling.com

• £60 Per 50 min sessions 
• Low-income clients £50
• I take cash or BACS payments in advance of the session

• I run a private practice from my home and the environment is calm, quiet and safe.
• I am an avid reader and I enjoy dancing, walking and cycling.
• I believe that a healthy wellbeing is paramount in living a balanced lifestyle, I practice relaxation techniques as I feel relaxation is such an important factor in reducing stress reactions.
• My aim in helping others has assisted my own development in a progressive lifestyle to demonstrate that following hardship and trauma a quality life can be achieved! Keep living!!

Testimonials

1. 'I feel I have changed as my anxiety has just diminished'
2. 'You helped me put things in place that has created differences in my working life that have altered my whole perception of my role, thank you'
3. 'I feel more relaxed and my sense of wellbeing has greatly improved, I now fear less and have fun more, its been great thanks'

4. 'Paula is fantastic, I was nervous to start my journey, but Paula made me feel at ease immediately. She is kind, supportive, and extremely good at her job. Paula is always so professional and made me feel comfortable in every session. She has guided me through one of the toughest times in my life and I truly believe I have grown as a person because of this. I will be forever grateful to Paula and would encourage anyone who is thinking about starting a course with Paula to do it. ' ED

5. I reached out to Paula to help me work through historical trauma that had led me to feel depressed and was stopping me from enjoying my life in the present. She helped me explore the issues that were holding me back from living and being the vibrant, beautiful woman I now know myself to be.
   No matter how low you feel now, or how hard it is to see a way out of your current situation, I really feel talking to someone who is impartial and empathic to you and your experiences can really help.
   Paula comes from a place of self-knowledge, her training in counselling sparked by her own experiences with anxiety, she is able to offer her clients a safe space to share their feelings and express their true selves without judgment.
   She uses a variety of talking techniques and often suggests books, courses or extra activities you can explore yourself between sessions, not sticking to a set model allows her to really tailor the sessions to your individual needs.
   I definitely feel more confident and able to take on life challenges than I did when I first reached out and hope to continue working with her to further explore how I can make the most of each day and continue on this path of self-love, understanding, and tolerance for myself and the people in my life.

   Thank you, Helen.