COUNSELLING FOCUS AREAS

General Counselling

Most professionals often choose or feel drawn to a line of specialisation. I have always wanted to support those experiencing difficulties moving through grief and loss and new this would be an area I would specialise in. Pre and Post Natal Support also called me.

Grief and Loss Counselling

For me, early in my studies grief and loss counselling really caught my attention. I also felt a strong inclination to work in this area to support those experiencing struggles moving through grief and loss, and those who are feeling overwhelmed with grieving and struggling with the loss of someone close to them.In my previous career I worked with many families who had a child or parent who was battling a terminal illness. I always wished I could do more to help them but didn’t have the training to do more than talk and support them on a base level. In addition to my formal studies I have completed additional study majors in grief and loss counselling. Diving into human attachment styles and attachment theories always fascinated me. Our attachment style formed in our early years underpins our future relationships and affects many other things in our lives including our grieving style. I am here to support you with grief and loss counselling, to help you understand what you are ging through and help you come through to the other side of grief with lasting bonds to move forward with.

Pre and Post Natal (Perinatal) Counselling

The perinatal stage starts from when you are planning conception or conception itself and lasts through to when your baby reaches the 12 month mark. Pregnancy and birth are two major life milestone events and understandably the rates for pre natal anxiety and pre natal depression or high. Rates of pre natal depression and post natal depression are also high not only in the birthing partner, but also the non birthing partner. Working in the pregnancy and newborn field for 18 years I saw many new parents struggle with pregnancy, birth, looking after a newborn and in need of additional support. Many new parents have their immediate family living overseas and have minimal support in Australia. Support is available to you. Pregnancy support counselling helps people work through their thoughts, feelings and emotions, building their emotional strength as they move towards birth and welcoming their newborn into their family. Pregnancy and conception can carry a lot of uncertainty and losses as parents move through IVF journeys. Conception counselling covers planning, IVF, infertility challenges and pregnancy loss.

Pregnancy loss is often unspoken about, and pregnancy loss through miscarriage can also be unrecognised by women resulting in disenfranchised grief. I have lived experience in multiple miscarriages and disenfranchised grief and naturally gravitated towards working in this field. I know how hard it can be to carry a pregnancy full term, how uncertain things can be, how scary it is to try again after multiple losses, how you can feel very much out of control and lose trust in your body. Such difficult areas to navigate and we often navigate these alone without someone who understands and is happy to listen as you talk freely about your concerns.

In addition to my formal studies I decided to complete further training in Perinatal Mental Health Basic Training, and more specialised training: Perinatal Loss for Therapists. We can experience many losses moving through this stage of our lives even feeling a sense of loss through many months of trying without success. You may feel alone and as if no one understands and you have no one to talk to, please know I am here to support you.

If the baby blues are lasting past day 10 post partum, yourself or your partner need to talk please get in touch.

Anxiety and Depression Counselling

Anxiety and depression can affect us all at some point in our lives. Life is busy these days, downtime can be hard to find with everything that we need to do to keep the ball or life rolling along. Anxiety counselling and depression counselling are available to you. If you’re feeling low for an extended amount of time or are feeling worried, help is available. Some people find also they may need assistance with their self esteeem, feeling low self worth and need help building confidence which is very common. Both anxiety and depression involve cycles which hold us in unhelpful thought – feeling – behaviour processes. I am here to help you understand this process and set strategies to start moving out of the grasp of depression and anxiety.

Highly Sensitive People

There is beginning to be more research around the personality type of high sensitivity. Highly sensitive people account for 15-20% of the population and is often very much misunderstood. Moving through life myself as a highly sensitive person has very much been a challenge. In my first 30 years of life I did not know what high senstivity was, or how to live with it. I simply felt different, couldn’t really relate to many people on the level I wanted to and therefore felt isolated and as though I didn’t fit in. I was told to stop crying, to stop being so sensitive, to toughen up… I felt I was at fault and just being me wasn’t allowed or acceptable. Cue identity crisis. Feelings of yearning to find a safe place to be authentic followed, there is and was nothing wrong with me, I was just misunderstood by myself and others. I have spent many years learning about what it is to be a highly sensitive person, and how to navigate life with this personality trait and feel like I belong and have permission to be myself. Bringing this learning and new research into my work as a counsellor supporting highly sensitive people. I find a lot of parents and children are in need of learning how to navigate this trait and aim to support both the parent and the child through learning more.

I have my counselling sessions availble via telehealth or in person, in my private room in Camden. Serving the Macarthur area and beyond, supporting clients through grief and loss, pre and post natal support, perinatal loss, anxiety and depression and also supporting highly sensitive people. I look forward to continuing to be of service to you.

Thank you as always, simply for being here,

Karen 🙂