Gill Tunstall

Individual Counselling

Sometimes talking to friends and family isn’t enough. They may try to help by pointing out all the things you have to be thankful for, but that will just make you feel worse. You need to talk about the difficult feelings you’re experiencing, and to have them acknowledged. There is a lot of pressure to be in a good mood, so we can get in the habit of hiding our sad feelings, but a good therapist can help you get back in touch with your feelings and identify things you might want to change.

Seeking the help of a counsellor can be an important first step to greater self awareness and to a fuller and more rewarding life.  It isn't always easy but it can be very effective.

As a qualified counsellor, with more than fifteen years' experience, I offer confidential, professional, and non-judgemental counselling in an atmosphere of mutual respect. My aim is to create a safe space for you to explore the issues that can make life feel painful or difficult.

Sometimes you have to make the decisions that will enable you to move on. Sometimes it's more important to fully understand and acknowledge what you really feel about your life.

People seek the help of counsellors for all kinds of reasons.  Are you struggling with feelings of worthlessness or finding it difficult to assert yourself? Do you feel helpless and unable to cope in the face of a new and sudden crisis? Do you feel that life is empty and lacking in meaning? Do close relationships leave you without a sense of depth or intimacy? These are all issues that can be illuminated by the counselling process.

Couple Counselling

There may be certain aspects of your relationship that have started to make you and your partner unhappy. The attempts that you’ve both made to change the situation haven’t proved successful. So you’ve decided that it’s the time to seek professional support.

A certain degree of conflict and disagreement is completely natural and healthy in any relationship. What may provoke a sense of crisis is the feeling that an ongoing conflict has started to become unmanageable or the sensation that your relationship has become ‘’stuck’’ in a recurring or dysfunctional pattern of relating.

At one extreme, separation or divorce may already be on the agenda. What may be needed here is compassionate support in making the transition to your new and different lives as individuals. It may be necessary to let go of difficult and painful feelings before that crucial step can be taken.

On the other hand, you may feel that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with your relationship but that you’re nonetheless committed to deepening it and to strengthening your closeness and intimacy.

Counselling offers you the opportunity to talk things through with an impartial and non-judgemental facilitator.  My aim is to offer a safe space for you to express feelings and discover new ways to interact with and to relate to your partner.

Issues that can be helped by Couple counselling

As a trained couple therapist I work with couples who may be dealing with some of these issues. :

• • Ineffective communication

• • Anger and frustration

• • Affairs and betrayals

• • Bereavement

• • Indecision about commitment

• • Life transitions

• • Lack of desire

• • Sexual difficulties

• • Infertility

• • Starting a family

• • Separation and divorce

As an integrative counsellor, my approach integrates perspectives from a range of theoretical disciplines: psychodynamic; humanistic; and cognitive behavioural therapy. The benefits of this approach are a flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of individuals.

Individuals
£70

Couples
£90

(including the initial session)
Sessions are 50 minutes for individuals and couples and we would usually meet once a week

The questions that I will ask in the first session should give me a broad understanding of your circumstances. Why have you sought counselling? What do you hope to achieve from it? Together we can discuss the issues that you need to focus on. Then we can decide how many sessions would be appropriate to do this in. Even a few sessions can sometimes be enough to begin a process of significant change.

My fees and counselling contract are subject to annual review.