Helen Hayes

I believe that we are each seeking to make our lives meaningful in our own personal way. to understand our difficulties, and to find our way to living as fully and freely as we are able to do.  We are never isolated individuals, but always living in the context of our personal relationships, our social and cultural environments, and our own values and aspirations.   As human beings, we often hold ourselves back from achieving our potential, or find ourselves in difficulties in our close relationships, or struggle to find a sense of purpose in our lives.  Therapy can help in unravelling some of the knots that we have tied for ourselves.   Therapy is concerned with exploring and clarifying your choices, values, or meanings, and addressing how you deal with the inevitable challenges of life. It aims to help you understand yourself, how you might repeat patterns of behaviour or relationship which are limiting or destructive, and how you might make different choices for yourself in the future.   I have extensive experience of working as a counsellor in the voluntary sector, and especially in the women's sector where I have specialist experience in counselling women affected by domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse, including childhood trauma and abuse.  I have also worked for nearly ten years as a counsellor in primary care, seeing clients with a wide range of emotional and psychological difficulties referred by GPs, and for six years I worked for a university student counselling service. I have experience of working with clients from many different social and cultural backgrounds, in both shorter and longer-term settings.