Counselling
There are several options for Counselling at The Centre either privately with Ester Wheeler or Deborah Lane (clients aged 4-25) or via Petersfield Counselling Service. Details of all options are shown below.
We all know the saying, “a problem shared is a problem halved” but surely it can’t be as simple as that? Sometimes it’s hard to talk to friends and family or sometimes even anyone at all. Counselling or talking therapy can be that one person you need who can take the time to just listen to you. It’s the space that you and your counsellor create, the non-judgmental relationship that can support, heel or/and allow growth.
Ester is a trained humanistic therapist and integrates Gestalt, Person Centred and Existential therapy. This means she believes that we are all self governing, unique individuals with an inert desire to complete unfinished business, make meaning of our experiences and reach our true potential. She works relationally and collaboratively to support clients through what ever might be troubling them, as well as celebrating achievements and individual’s potential.
As a humanistic therapist, Ester works with all presenting issues as an individual and unique experience for the client. No client is the same however, common areas she has worked with and trained in include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Disorganised or disordered eating
- Low confidence or Low self esteem
- Long term and short term therapy
- Loss and Bereavement
- Relationship and Family breakdown
- Sex, Sexuality and Gender identity
- Sexual, physical and emotional abuse
- Stress
- Suicidal thought, attempts and/or ideology
- Trauma, PTSD and Complex PTSD
Deborah is a professionally registered Integrative Counsellor and Psychotherapist (MBACP), qualified at Masters level, specialising in work with children, adolescents, young people (aged 4-25), and their families.
Deborah offers a warm, friendly and compassionate approach, working collaboratively with children and young people to build a trusting therapeutic relationship. As an integrative therapist, she draws upon a range of creative arts and play resources which can be used to facilitate communication beyond the constraints of language so that difficulties and inner conflicts can be expressed, witnessed, and understood in developmentally appropriate and paced ways. Her core foundation is rooted in non-directive play-based therapy, humanistic, psychodynamic and CBT approaches, grounded in a core understanding of attachment and family systems.
Deborah works with a broad range of presentations including anxiety, school avoidance, OCD, depression, low-mood, emotional regulation, trauma, bereavement, family separation, attachment difficulties, low self-esteem, eco- and climate anxiety, self-harm and disordered eating.
Counselling at The Centre run by:
Petersfield Counselling Service
Counselling is based on listening and offering clients the space to find their own way forward. Supporting you in understanding past events, worries about the future or lack of confidence can be helpful in providing change and helping you to find the direction in your life that you are seeking.
Petersfield Counselling Service is a charity founded to offer affordable counselling to people in the area.
Ecotherapy
So what is Ecotherapy?
The ever-evolving question and one with a myriad of interpretations. For the context of these sessions with Emily, Ecotherapy is rooted in a way of being with the world that speaks to our interconnection with ourselves, each other and nature. Ecotherapy offers a framework that remembers that all three of those things as one living, breathing, interacting organism. A reciprocal relationship in constant conversation and exchange with each other. It’s that foundation that infuses Emily’s practise, both personally and professionally here at The Centre.
And how can Ecotherapy support you?
Have you been wrestling with a worry or been feeling stuck or struggling? Do you feel in need of some nurture or nourishment, some time and space for yourself? Have you been feeling disconnected, lost, sad, anxious, exhausted, angry, numb? By coming in to the natural world in this way, consciously making space and time to turn up with ALL that we are and ALL that we are navigating, we gift ourselves the opportunity to be heard, held, supported and witnessed. The power and transformational potency that’s held in slowing down to listen, soothe and resource our nervous systems, through whatever terrain we’re navigating internally, offers us this chance to come home to the wholeness of who we are. An integral and precious reminder of what we’re part of and an opportunity to build our sense of safety in being with all that we’re feeling.
It’s not a new practise, as humans we’ve been living in this way since our time here began on this planet, and for many cultures and people this way of being in the world is still very much alive. For us in the West, so much of life these days tends to pull us away from this sense of connection and belonging. The effects of that disconnection within ourselves, our communities and our relationship with the land and it’s inhabitants is evident, not least through our current health and ecological crises. Working together ecotherapeutically, in full community with ourselves, each other and the natural world, can offer us that often much-needed reminder of our ‘place in the family of things’*. What it is to feel that we are truly welcome, that we truly belong and are supported in ALL that we feel and experience?! In the whole cycle, with all of those feelings of shame, judgement, sensuality, grief, fear or anger that we’re so often told not to feel. What we then have to offer ourselves and the wider world from that place, from that sense of wholeness, is truly something quite exquisite.
Ecotherapeutic practises can be part of our day-to-day wellbeing; walking, swimming, gardening, running, mediating outside perhaps. It can also offer us more conscious support like these sessions with Emily; supported by another, offering us space and time to connect, listen and be with the full spectrum of how we’re feeling. And then there are times that these moments with nature can invite us in to something much more mystical and magical, experiences that often words often can’t quite capture.
You’ve probably engaged in some sort of ecotherapeutic practise already without even realising it. When you go outside for a walk, do you notice a shift or find yourself saying ‘ooo that feels better’? Well that’s it really in its simplest and purest form! Still not sure? Please have a look at the further resources that Emily has on her website, including her free nature based grounding, or get in touch.
*Quote from Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
- All
- Counselling
- Ecotherapy
- Psychotherapy
