Mr Andrew Spencer
Member Status: Accredited
Member No: NCS20-01026
Location: Hove
What is counselling?
Life will always present us with challenges and difficult situations. Sometimes these challenges can get on top of us and we stop living and enjoying our lives as fully as we would like. This is where counselling can be of help.
Counselling is about offering a supportive relationship in a safe and confidential environment to talk through whatever is concerning them. Counselling is not about giving advice and counsellors can never be experts in other people’s lives. Counselling is about helping people find their unique strengths to work through a particular issue in the best way for them so that they can live their life to the fullest.
Meet Me
How I work
Individual Counselling
Whatever challenge life throws at us, I believe we all have the potential to deal with it successfully, move on and lead a happy life. I consider the most important foundation to successful counselling is the relationship between the counsellor and client. Being in a trustful, open and supportive relationship allows the client to really get to understand themselves, explore all of their unique and individual strengths and how they can best deal with and work through the concern at hand. This is all done at the client’s pace and is never rushed. I focus on what is happening with the client in the present. Sometimes it is important to talk about the past but only how it is affecting the client’s experience.
Some of the areas for which I offer counselling include:
Loss of a close relationship through death, including anticipating the death of someone close, and through miscarriage
Dealing with a life limiting illness
Caring for someone with a life limiting illness
Dealing with trauma, particularly rape, sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse
Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa (non-chaotic), Obesity and other concerns regarding food, weight and shape
Anger management
Anxiety and depression
Problems in close and intimate relationships
Stress management
Many people who have had these experiences have feelings of depression, anxiety and anger, all of which I work with in my counselling practice.
Couples Counselling
Many of us choose to share our lives with another person who is our partner through either the whole or a significant part of our life. A healthy relationship is where each person in a couple can be open and share their authentic needs with each other. In this way they get their needs met at least the majority of the time.
Sometimes this process gets interrupted and our relationship becomes turbulent, painful or a struggle. Some examples of what can cause this are:
Pressures outside the relationship keeping people apart such as work commitments;
Relationships outside the marriage that can affect the couple such as friends, family and children;
Not understanding or knowing how to communicate and get each other’s needs met within the relationship; and
Fear of intimacy due to past experiences.
Couples counselling is a process where with the proactive support of a counsellor the couple can explore what went wrong and find ways to resolve the problems they are having. This typically involves using the couples’ problem solving ability to come up with their own way through their problems.
Sometimes couples can decide that their best option is to dissolve the relationship and each find other partners that better meet their needs. Couples counselling can also offer support through this process that can often be painful.
Emotional Freedom Technique?
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a simple practical and user friendly technique similar to acupuncture but without using needles. It’s principle is that all symptoms of dis-ease have their root in an imbalance in the body’s energy system.
How does it work?
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) aims to remove any psychological blocks in the mind towards health and then re-tune the energy system in our body back to balance. We can then be well to lead fulfilling happy lives.
EFT works by tapping certain parts of the body (linked the meridian points in acupuncture) and saying simple words and phrases out loud about the specific problem being treated. Many people find it a bit “wackey and wierd” at first but when they see results and get used to it their inhibitions tend to evaporate.
EFT can produce quick results in some cases. However, normally when there are a number of parts (aspects) to a problem EFT needs to be carried out on all of them before the problem being treated is resolved and health can be maintained.
Although you need a practitioner to work with you, an advantage of EFT is that it can be practiced on your own. It is a simple tool that can help you with daily life.
What can it treat?
The wonderful potential of EFT is that it can be used to treat a number of mental and physical health problems by bringing our energy system back to balance. EFT is backed up by research and there are numerous reports of its positive benefits. It is typically used to treat the following, all of which I can offer as part of my practice:
Traumas – Healing the past;
Phobias;
Chronic pain;
Cravings and addictions;
Stress, anxiety & Depression; and
Low self esteem and low self confidence
I often carry out EFT in combination with other self help tools as appropriate for my client.