Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
Carl Jung
My intention is to provide a safe and welcoming environment for you to discuss and explore whatever you might want to bring to our sessions. I offer a kind, compassionate and understanding relationship so that you can feel comfortable to be who you are and express your thoughts and feelings without fear of judgement and criticism.
We all go through times in our lives when we experience challenges which can be testing and have a profound effect on us and our relationships. My clients struggle with issues including anxiety, depression, relationship and family difficulties, fertility, parenting, low self-esteem, anger management, life changes and transitions, redundancy and career choices, bereavement, abuse, personal development and so on.
At these times of struggle, when we might feel overwhelmed, reaching out and asking for help shows courage and positive intention.
Psychotherapy can be an opportunity to manage a tough time you are going through, a kind of damage-control experience to help you survive it and come out stronger and more in control at the other end.
Psychotherapy can also be a path of self-discovery which involves taking time and space to slow down and explore, with honesty and courage, who you are, as yourself and in the world with others; how you arrived at the present moment and to realise how you are stuck in habitual and unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Then through awareness and compassion, you can take action towards positive change and what you want for now and the future.
It offers you a chance to talk and work through feelings and situations, whether you want to bring specific issues - relationships, dilemmas, doubts, commitment, existential questions (Who am I? What am I doing? What's the purpose of my life?) - or a simple curiosity to know yourself more. It is a challenging but always rewarding personal journey towards increased self-awareness, acceptance and contentment.
I have experience of working with clients in different settings: students within a University Counselling Service, where I've also run Stress & Anxiety Management, and Procrastination workshops; teenagers at a Southwark Community Centre; in-patients, out-patients and relatives at King's College Hospital in South East London; adults in private practice; students of Mindfulness... I also work with adopted children and their parents with a specialist post-adoption team in Dorset and I am embarking on a two year long course to work specifically with children and adolescents.
While still living in London, I set up a network of therapists and midwives, who specialise in working with women and men dealing with issues regarding fertility, pregnancy and parenthood. I was the psychotherapist in the group and counselled women at any stage of the emotional roller-coaster that was their often difficult journey to becoming a mother and beyond. Within NEST I also worked with men affected by related issues and children who attended with or without their parents.
This is my life’s work and I'm very passionate about it. I feel privileged to be allowed into my clients' worlds while accompanying them on their own journeys. I never fail to be touched and changed by these encounters.
I am a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Please see my listing on the Counselling Directory:
www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/barbara-mella