Frances McGibney

Welcome to my website

How can psychotherapy or counselling help me?

My way of working

• can help you understand why you feel the way you do and support you in dealing with painful feelings and experiences that feel too difficult to manage alone.
• can help you begin to feel better about yourself and to find those capacities and abilities you sometimes thought you had somewhere deep inside but could never quite reach or express.
• can help you begin to see new possibilities for yourself and make decisions that will help you reach the goals you never thought you could.
• can help you see your life in a wider context that will help you move on from what might seem like the straightjacket of your life experiences and begin to feel part of the world around you.
  

My approach is a very personal one: my aim is to meet the needs of my client in a way that will foster trust and a feeling of safety, first and foremost. I am an integrative therapist, which means that the theories and philosophies of more that one approach inform my work, so whilst I hold these theories in mind I also let go of any rigid adherence to them in the interest of creating a fluid and flowing process that, for my client, will facilitate ease, growth and a more positive and creative way of experiencing their lives.

The difference between counselling and psychotherapy

Sometimes there can seem to be very little difference between counselling and psychotherapy especially if you become established with your counsellor, but, generally speaking, counselling tends to be shorter term and possibly focused around a particular problem that needs a solution. Psychotherapy is usually longer term and is more about how you experience your life and relationships and might include taking a look at the past to try and discover early origins of negative patterns of thinking and behaving that might be limiting your life in the present. Dreams can also help in understanding what is going on for you at present, and can be an important source of information if you choose to work with them. Psychotherapy might also include working with the body: very often it is ourbodies that take the brunt of emotional difficulties, and in doing so can be the signposts to conflicts held deep within that perhaps are not easily accessible with words alone.

Contact Details

If you would like to arrange an initial session, for which I charge, or would like some further information, please contact:

Landline: 0117 9268227
Mobile: 07776304799
Email: francesmcgibney@gmail.com