Counselling
Counselling is a working relationship between client and counsellor based on mutual trust and support. Counselling emphasises self-help and choice and focuses on problems of living. The method I use is called person-centred.
I see counselling as like having a trusted friend help you to gently open the door on problem areas of your life which are causing difficulties so that you can find your own solutions and in order that healing can take place. This is done in a non-threatening way and at a pace with which the client is comfortable.
Another analogy is that a problem can be like a tangled skein of wool. Through counselling it is possible to separate the threads, work back to the beginning and weave the whole into a usable ball.
Counselling is not about giving advice or telling the client what to do. Its role is to help the person find their own way and draw upon and discover their own resources.