Individual Work

Importance of individual counselling and psychotherapy

National Surveys have shown that over 90% of people in the UK believe that a person with a mental health problem can be helped most by talking to someone. 85% of respondents think that this should be to a counsellor(1). Counselling is as effective as antidepressant treatment in post-natal depression(2) and in mild to moderate depressive disorder in primary care(3). However, where talking really matters is when people are feeling trapped or stuck because it is then that depression has the greatest risk of returning(4) or becoming chronically incapacitating.

What do we do?

We can offer a range of therapeutic approaches, including psychodynamic, person-centred, systemic, and cognitive-behavioural methods, but mostly we work within an existential psychotherapy framework, which addresses people's life issues in a direct and open manner.

We will consider helping anyone with long-standing depression, anxiety or anxiety-related disorder with an apparently irresoluble problem and unacceptable level of suffering, or any couple, however distressed, who want to find a way through their difficulties.

Our help comes about through talking. We cannot provide medication, physical protection or sanctuary. We are not, therefore, able to take on anyone who is acutely psychotic, someone who is unable to control his or her use of alcohol or drugs, or anyone who is violent. Dilemma Consultancy reserves the right to decline to offer an appointment for assessment to an individual that is deemed to be unsuitable, or to request a mental health assessment before the initial interview. Clients with a developmental disorder will normally be expected to have an assessment of this disorder, which can be provided by Dilemma, before being offered an initial assessment for counselling or psychotherapy.

Philosophy

At Dilemma we work with existentially based methods. This means that we consider that it is paramount for a person to find a way to create meaning in their life and have a clear purpose to live for. We enable people to become aware of the values and beliefs that they hold dear, even though they may have become out of touch with them and have hidden them underneath bad habits and symptoms of unease and discontents.

We also help people question their assumptions in order to become capable of capitalizing on their strengths and individual talents and overcome the obstacles that are holding them back. We can assist people in dealing with loss and grief or with major disappointments, crises or changes in their lives. We believe it is always possible to improve the way in which people tackle their problems and to use times of difficulty to make changes for the better. Improving communication between people is usually an important part of the process.

We encourage people to face their anxieties rather than hiding from them or living in denial and we can teach people to increase their confidence and overcome panic and fears that are paralysing their ability to act effectively in the world. Getting a clearer sense of who you are and what you want to be and find a more rewarding way to live are always some of the important objectives of counselling and psychotherapy. At Dilemma we believe that this has to be achieved whilst taking account of the context of your everyday reality and in open communication with those near and dear to you.

Our Services

Sorting out dilemmas, dealing with sorrows, overcoming problems and solving conflicts can be some of the most important things you ever do in your life. There is no stigma in asking for help from professionals in achieving a better insight into your own life. It will require you to commit yourself to the work to be done in a serious and open-minded manner and to be willing to take stock of yourself and the way you currently live your life. If you do so in a wholehearted manner, surprising and satisfying new experiences may be the reward. There is no point in remaining stuck in a rut, when taking time to reflect may make such a big difference to you for the future.

Please note, that whilst we at Dilemma will put our professional abilities fully at your disposal, the responsibility for the success of your work with us will remain your own.

Individual sessions last one hour (actually, 50 minutes). Clients are usually seen once a week, but may be seen more or less frequently in special circumstances. We will try to schedule sessions to fit your time-table.

Different Services

At Dilemma we can offer individual counselling sessions for those who have personal problems or couple counselling for those with relationship problems. We also offer, more in depth, longer-term psychotherapy to enable people to take stock of the past circumstances that have led to current problems and to tackle these difficulties in a more intensive, enduring therapeutic relationship.

We offer executive coaching for those people whose problems are mostly work related. In addition Dilemma Consultancy can provide supervision for professionals who themselves work with people, in order to help them monitor and improve the therapeutic value of their interventions.

Help is available

At Dilemma Consultancy we help our clients resolve problems and dilemmas that might otherwise become intractable. People often value such help during a time of transition, crisis or loss when it is difficult to know what to do. We work with people who are depressed or anxious, those who are bereaved and those feel confused. We also work with couples who are caught up in mutual hostility, unable to separate and unable to satisfy each other. We help them to learn to listen, communicate and respect each other so as to reach a mutually acceptable solution to their dilemmas. We can help people tackle problems of loneliness and lack of self-confidence. We can assist people whose trust of others has become so attenuated that they cannot allow themselves to get close to another person, even though they very much want to.

Over the last thirty years the partners of Dilemma Consultancy have developed a wide range of expertise in dealing with dilemmas and predicaments of all kinds, although with one common feature, that the person or couple involved have become unable to resolve the situation and this has led to psychological distress or illness.

Referrals

We accept referrals from fellow professionals or from prospective clients themselves. Referrals can be sent by post, fax or email. Messages may also be left on our answerphone. On receipt of a referral we will send out an information pack to the referred client and offer an initial interview. If the client and the therapist both think that it would be in the client's interests to proceed with counselling or therapy, then subsequent sessions will be arranged at their mutual convenience. There is no obligation to proceed with counselling or therapy after this first interview, but once therapy or counselling has begun, there will be an expectation that it is continued for any agreed number of sessions.

Length and duration

All the work is offered through fifty-minute sessions, arranged at mutual convenience. Counselling generally requires at least ten sessions, even when it sets out to address a specific problem. We would recommend that clients, after an initial interview, engage in a period of ten regular weekly sessions. The work is then reviewed and a further ten-week period can be contracted or the work can be terminated if the difficulties have been overcome.

Psychotherapy is generally more intensive and of longer duration and a commitment of at least a year is more realistic in this situation. Therapy usually takes between a year and three years, but the work should be reviewed regularly so as to remain actively on target.

Supervision can be provided on a weekly or fortnightly basis and it can be offered individually or in groups of three or four.

Executive coaching is usually offered on the basis of two-hourly sessions to be spaced weekly or fortnightly and these are provided in ten weekly packages.

A contract for the work will be agreed in mutual consultation.