Personal Therapy - Bromley, SE London & Online
Welcome to Talkthinkact Counselling, Bromley
My name is Sally Spigner, I am a professionally qualified, BACP registered counsellor offering both short and longer term psychotherapeutic counselling. I am based in a relaxed and peaceful office within my home in Bromley and work with adult and teenage clients, both in person face to face and online. I work in a person-centred way, you are in charge of your own counselling - how long it lasts for and which way you want it to go, and I also incorporate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), positive psychology and mindfulness holistic approaches.
Counselling doesn't need to be a daunting or frightening experience, let me help to put your mind at ease. I understand that it has likely taken you some time to make the decision to seek help, please do to call for a chat first if you need to, it is always good to put a voice to a face.
Talk - discuss your concerns in complete confidentiality
Think - process events which have happened
Act - calmly, assertively and with direction
Who needs counselling?
1 in 4 of us in the UK will find ourselves struggling with mental health challenges every year and suicide is the biggest killer of men aged under 50.
Many of us are finding ourselves tearful or overreacting to day to day situations and don't know why, feeling angry all the time or overly anxious, or perhaps unable to make what should be the simplest of decisions. It is very difficult to deal with the uncertainty which covid has caused, do not underestimate the effects it will have had on you, even if nobody you know has been personally affected. At these times counselling can help you to regain your balance, consider the sessions as promoting mental fitness, in the same way that you might enrol in a gym for your physical health.
There is absolutely no need for you to face your problems alone.
What might counselling do for me?
Personally
Don't let indecision or fear hold you back. Therapy can give you tools to lower your stress levels, strategies to help to reduce anger or anxiety, help you to become more assertive or to get in touch with your true feelings. Learn how to notice the good things in your life rather than concentrating on what is wrong with it. We can explore just about any problem which you are facing in a calm, confidential and non-shaming way.
Personally
Don't let fear hold you back. Therapy can give you tools to lower your stress levels, strategies to help to reduce anger or anxiety, help you to become more assertive or to get in touch with your emotions. Learn to harness your mental energy and tackle procrastination.
Professionally
Careers are a very different thing today compared to when our parents started work. You are far more likely to retrain several times during the course of your working life, due to challenges like covid, changes in your family role, companies closing down, a desire to seek more meaningful contribution or even changes in your own physical abilities. You may have several jobs at one time, as opposed to a career for life, be supporting yourself while you pursue an acting break, or wanting to take a gap year to travel.
Are you being overlooked for promotion because you don't have enough presence in your organisation, or perhaps losing staff and you don't know why? Together we can explore your feelings about your career, start to plan a complete change in direction, or see how you might achieve a better work/life balance. We can discuss redundancy, getting the best out of your team, role play interview skills, identify strengths and weaknesses, examine workplace bullying or consider how you start a case for industrial tribunal.
Family
Gain perspective on family situations by discussing them with a third party completely unattached to the outcome, perhaps learn to speak so that professionals and your loved ones will listen, discuss your feelings about challenges with starting a family, start to establish boundaries where before there were none. It is important to recognise what challenges you had when you were younger and how they might still affect how you think now, we often downplay our childhood losses in the belief that others have it far worse, but your losses will have affected how you view your world. Talking therapy gets you used to being more open with others and gives you insight into the way in which you think.
Relationships
Therapy helps you to identify unhelpful patterns in your relationships and can enable you to resolve issues rather than argue, ignore or run from them. It is possible to fall in love with your partner again and counselling can help you to come closer together, or conversely assist you to get your head around ending a relationship which you have been struggling for a long time to leave. Our roles in relationships change as we age, from child to teenager, young adult to parent, perhaps on to becoming a carer for your own parents. You might be exploring your own sexual identity or even considering gender reassignment. All of these types of relationship change are likely to cause anxiety as you pass through them, but can also be seen as opportunities for growth rather than loss.
Loss
There are many sorts of loss in life; moving home, divorce, injury, losing jobs, bereavement or stillbirth, losing touch with friends, losing our physical or mental capabilities as we age, loss of sex drive or identity around the menopause, death of our beloved pets to name but a few. Often we can feel that we have to put on a brave face for those who are close to us, so we might never acknowledge our own feelings of grief and despondency, therapy can be a safe environment in which you can let those feelings out.
Think of your counsellor as being your own personal cheerleader, yet also somebody who will gently guide you if your feelings about a situation have become skewed.