We each have what it takes to find healing. The art of living is to experience what is happening in this moment and trust that we are already on our path to health. Sometimes however what we are going through can be so painful and distressing that it is hard to believe any resolution can be found to our problems – we can start to feel it’s all hopeless. At these times we need a skilled helper who can shine a light into our darkness enabling us to explore choices for how we may wish to change our life script. I would like to take that journey with you. My name is Julia Young and I am a qualified Counsellor. I work with the whole self – mind, body and soul providing an environment where personal growth and understanding is possible. My approach embraces the microcosm and macrocosm of life, recognising how our inner selves; including emotions and physical health and external environment such as families, work and communities have an impact upon how we experience ourselves. I am resistant to labels, including those associated with mental illness, preferring to work with whatever issues you bring, exploring them within the therapeutic hour; sharing in that sense of gradual unfolding. Sessions are usually weekly and take place at my practice in Worthing. However if you are disabled or frail, I am happy to visit your home, residential placement or hospital. This is because I am determined that nobody should be denied the opportunity to receive counselling due to disability o

The Damaging Impact of Mental Illness Labels

Tuesday, 05 July 2011 14:58 Sometimes we can receive a label for a mental health condition that leaves us believing that whatever we do we will always be powerless to the condition and its treatability. For me this gets in the way of us being able to work through the issues that make life so distressing, where we tend to give our sadness, depression, panic, despair, hopeless labels such as borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia. So rather than discovering what may have caused us to be distressed, we note that we are depressed and presume it is because we have avoidant personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, or any one of several other labels, thus blocking our path to discovering what truly may be happening for us. This then takes us further into a decline, where we feel our sense of loss of ourselves and ability to change. I challenge this perspective of our emotional distress, where the mental health profession have provided yet another layer for an already distressed person to have to work through in their understanding of their situation, before the client is able to address what is really happening in his/her life. My view is that relying too much on labels we can be led to lose sight of what is really happening for our clients, assuming personality traits that tick boxes, sometimes leading therapists to misread what is happening in the here and now. I very much believe we need to understand and explore what has happened in our past, but not to the exclusion of where we are now. Our past in many respects does not define us; who we are now and what our experiences are in this moment are what matter. Difficult childhoods and abuse, does not mean that we have lost such a fundamental part of our makeup that nothing we do in the present could change this. Unfortunately famous psychotherapists from the past, some of whom gave so much to the work of counselling and psychotherapy have also caused this profession to be hamstrung in its understanding of the power of human nature to heal despite the most horrendous pasts.

Experiences of Grief and Loss

Grief can be one of the most overwhelming emotions and whilst sometimes the cause will be obvious; such as the sad loss of someone we love; it can also take us quite by surprise, when unemployment or the ending of a relationship cause feelings of despair, that just won't leave us despite everything we try to do. Grief can also show itself when we move to a new area/home leaving friends behind or when children leave home for university, where issues of our identity (who we saw ourselves as; mother/father), feel as if they have changed forever.

Specialist Services

Counselling in and around Worthing in West Sussex. 5 Minutes from Worthing Train station Cover all of West Sussex

Trade Bodies / Associations

Sussex Counselling - Counselling in Worthing West Sussex. bacp - British Association For Counselling and Psychotherapy. pcsr