What is counselling?

Counselling is a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space for you to explore your feelings. Counselling is not limited to a particular issue, but rather can help you process different things you are facing. Counselling aims to enable you to be able to process your thoughts and feelings with a trained therapist to go on this journey with you.

All our counsellors are either qualified counsellors or currently completing their counselling training. They are all members of a professional governing body, either the BACP or UKCP and adhere to their guidelines.

Types of counselling

We have counselling practitioners trained in Person Cantered and Integrative counselling, we cannot at this time provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy describes the following modalities of counselling as follows:

Person Centred Therapy

When you’re attending counselling sessions with a person-centred counsellor, you’ll be encouraged to bring your own issues to the session – the counselling is led by you and not directed by the counsellor.

Many clients, with no prior knowledge of counselling, believe that the counsellor will sort their problems out for them. A person-centred counsellor will help you to explore your own issues, feelings, beliefs, behaviour, and worldview, so you can become more self-aware and achieve greater independence.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

CBT aims to help you change the way you think (cognitive) and what you do (behaviour). Rather than looking at past causes, it focuses on current problems and practical solutions to help you feel better now.
The way we think about situations affects the way we feel and behave. If we view a situation negatively, we may experience negative emotions and feelings which lead us to behave in an unhelpful way. Your therapist will help you identify and challenge any negative thinking so you can deal with situations better and behave in a more positive way.

CBT can be helpful for depression, anxiety, stress, phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and managing long term conditions.

Integrative

Integrative counselling looks at the whole person, taking into account your mental, physical and emotional needs. Your therapist will use techniques and tools from different modalities to tailor an individual approach for you.

An integrative counsellor aims to build a trusting and non-judgmental relationship that helps you develop self-awareness. When you understand the causes of your concerns or triggers for your behaviour, you can confidently set goals and develop new behaviours to improve your satisfaction with life.

Counselling Referral Form

Please select to say if you are making a referral for yourself or a Professional Referral?

Your name

Phone Number

Email Address

Please explain the reason for the referral:

Is the referral for a resident of the London Borough of Newham? Is the referral for a resident of the London Borough of Newham? Yes No

I am happy for Alternatives Trust East London to share the information in this form with others so that I can be supported further

Name of referring individual

Name of referring organisation

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Your Phone Number

Your Email Address

Any known medical conditions:

Name of person being referred:

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