Gerry Ritchie
Member Status: Accredited
Member No: NCS20-00827
Location: Evesham
Hi, I'm Gerry. I have trained in a broad range of counselling and psychotherapy methods including Emotional Therapeutic Counselling (ETC), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Hypnotherapy and Coaching. I also teach counselling skills so I keep up to date with new developments and initiatives in the counselling profession. I believe in matching the therapeutic approach to the client as the client is the centre of the therapy.
Most people come for counselling when they have an emotional or behavioural problem that is causing them some distress in their lives. Some people like to label their problem and use various terms to describe it such as anxiety, depression, unresolved grief, low mood, stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attachment disorder or other terms. However, in my experience, the majority of emotional and behavioural problems are rooted in past events or childhood experiences, which cause us to set up safety-seeking and survival coping mechanisms that can cause us problems in later life. Often, we are not even consciously aware of why we act like we do.
Counselling and psychotherapy can offer a way for us help gain better insight into our coping mechanisms and, so, provide us with more choices about how we move forward and live our lives. It can also help us develop alternative emotional and psychological tools which may be less destructive for us.
My approach is always to let the client choose how far and in what direction they want the therapy to go. Control is always with the client and my role is to help them determine what they want from therapy and to then help guide them to that goal.
