“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy How I can helpWelcome to my website and thank you for taking the time to review me as a Therapist. My name is Desmond Channer and I am a registrant member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy [MBACP].
I am also a member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society [NCPS]. Being a member of these Counselling bodies helps to enhance my proficiency and supports and improves my ethical practice.
How can I help?
Sometimes life is complicated and currently we are living in uncertain times with difficult issues to contend with. You may find that there is little space to decompress or take stock of the changing world around you. Our sense of belonging and our place within the groups we co-habit can become confused and difficult to maintain. Distractions arising from work and social pressures, negative news narratives, digital media, and in particular social media, fragment our attention and focus from what is important in life and can intensify anxiety and feelings that overwhelm.
Counselling can help you to reflect on and re-examine what is important in your life and where you may have got stuck in habits that no longer work for you. A listening space is an increasingly rare opportunity for self-reflection in a hectic world.
Our experiences in the past inform how we behave and live in the present, what coping strategies we employ, and these can become less useful over time, holding us back from being all we are capable of becoming. Counselling can offer a way of working through difficulties with relationships, mental health, work or personal growth and it can also be a way of breaking a sense of loneliness and isolation. I can offer a non-judgemental and objective space in which you are valued and accepted. How we work will be collaborative and I will encourage you to bring your own ideas about what works best on your journey in therapy.
I aim to provide people with a safe and confidential space where they can explore difficult thoughts, feeling and emotions or experiences and concerns, as well as desires and aspirations. It can often be easier to talk openly with a qualified professional – that someone outside of friends, colleagues and family circles who can offer a more objective alliance which is formed between client and counsellor. We can determine together what areas you wish to focus on, or allow the work to evolve naturally. I work in a holistic way that respects your individual as well as community and intergenerational heritage and experience.
.. providing Counselling can also be done using video conferencing tools such as Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime [Apple] or WhatsApp instead of or in addition to face-to-face sessions I also offer this form of counselling in addition to working face-to-face. This can be a more flexible way of experiencing therapy if you are unable to travel, you live with a disability, are living in an isolated location or due to the demands of a busy day at work.
I work primarily with problems arising from our busy lives, which can be as a result of early attachment issues, abuse, medical interventions or loss, though there are endless ways in which our lives impact on our thoughts, feelings and emotions. I also work with issues to do with gender, identity and oppression and the depressive states arising from negative experiences, and I also work with the LGBTQ+ Community.
I practice as a Therapist in Woodford to the North East of London providing face-to-face counselling and I also work from my home providing video and telephone counselling sessions.
Beginning counselling can be challenging and a brave step to take, but it can also be rewarding. It does require a commitment of time, a willingness to invest in yourself financially and the desire to participate as fully as possible in order to get the best out of the experience. Developing awareness of self and the impact we have on others and others on us can be profoundly life changing. Being able to challenge ourselves and our views on life can fundamentally alter our mental and physical wellbeing.
I genuinely believe that taking this first step in making this courageous choice can have a transformative effect on your life but it is a step that requires you to make a choice. Being ‘sent’ for counselling can be counterproductive and limiting for clients because your autonomy outside and within the therapeutic relationship you establish with me is central to how we can work together. For this reason, it is important that you choose counselling and decide for yourself that wanting to change and working within a therapeutic alliance to achieve that change is something that you wish to experience.
Counselling is effective in addressing a range of problems, including:
- Depression or low mood
- Panic Attacks
- Feeling anxious, burned out or stressed
- Feeling angry, irritable or intolerant of others
- Adverse Childhood Experiences (trauma/ or an experience of a traumatic event)
- Experiencing overwhelming guilt or shame
- Suffering disordered eating
- Battling with addiction/ substance misuse
- Experiencing problems in the workplace
- Struggling to make and maintain good relationships
- Encountering obsessional thoughts or behaviours
- Having difficulties with sexuality
- Experiencing bereavement and loss
- Struggling to find a sense of purpose
- Difficulties adapting to change
- Work or Academic related issues
- Experiencing a desire to self-harm
- Suicidal thoughts and feelings
- Confused/ dysfunctional thinking
- Identity Issues
- Self-esteem/ low-self worth
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