Rebecca Gouldhurst

Adorn the bird with feathers and it will fly.

Counselling is a supportive, caring space, for anyone who wants a safe and confidential place to talk about their issues, where you can unburden yourself and find new ways to live the life you want. Giving you the skills and know how to manage the ups and downs of life. While embracing your uniqueness.

Areas of Special Interest

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Stress
• Grief
• Loss
• Loneliness
• Anger
• Relationships
• Gender issues
• Trauma
• New directions
• Self confidence
• Sexuality
• Sexual abuse
• Spiritual concerns
• Life changes

Counselling/Therapy Services

I welcome people of all cultures, religions and gender orientations.

Counselling is about looking at your life with the support and care of another person. It is for anyone who wants a safe and confidential place to talk about any issue, big or small. Whether it’s something specific you want to address, unresolved past issues, or things just don’t feel right and you don’t feel happy. Working together we can establish strategies to resolve health issues, overcome stress and emotional hurdles, using simple and practical methods. Focusing on your thoughts, feelings, and energy to help you achieve good health.

Coping strategies can turn into habits which may manifest in distressing ways such as relationship difficulties, addictions and mental health issues. Within the counselling relationship we can explore intentional choices that best serve your life and relationships, so you can come to terms with your past. Allowing better understanding and minimising how it impacts you now. You can become a more resilient and authentic person, learning self-compassion, new life skills, positive ways of thinking and being, ways to enjoy your life, and develop good self-esteem.

Also available walking and talking therapy

Talking without the constraints of being inside can lead to easier conversation. It can be more comfortable to talk through your situation while walking. And it’s very grounding to be in the open air, while setting your own walking pace.  Research has shown that walking in nature can help reduce depression and anxiety. After walking, 71% of people experienced decreased depression and were less tense, while 90% felt their self-esteem had increased after a walk.

Spending time in nature helps regulate our nervous and immune systems. The calm of nature, slows us down and can sooth the unrest of the mind while promoting deep breathing. Exercise releases feel-good hormones reducing stress, depression and anxiety. Combine these powerful positive influences, while walking & talking with your Counsellor. It contributes to a safe emotional and spiritual space for you to explore your situation.

Counselling/Therapy Approach

Guided by your pace I work flexibly, drawing on a range of modalities depending on your needs.

We often have limitations within us, which prevent us from being our natural aliveness. Counselling seeks to bring to awareness the nature of these blocks and how they may be dissolved so that our whole self may emerge as an ally as we move through life. As a team we would work through emotionally charged material and support you to fully integrate your life experiences, this may include increasing your awareness of unconscious factors that may be influencing your life, including past hurts, overcoming stresses and emotional hurdles. Giving you opportunities to work through that which has been unfinished or stuck to free you up to move towards the life you want.

Supervision

Good supervision occurs in a warm and encouraging environment based on a relationship of trust and transparency. It becomes a space where, through exploration and understanding, we can learn more about ourselves. Taking supervision is a form of experiential learning, of being in the present, of deep listening. It provides an opportunity to disentangle yourself from your expectations, discover what boundaries need to be set and gain insight about your responses.

Supervision is a compassionate inquiry which opens our hearts and minds, being a way of reviewing our habitual ways of thinking, judging and our reality. Creating opportunities to waken us to what we are doing, by holding it up to the light. Making sense of what happened, from a number of perspectives, allowing us to understand, learn, and have the opportunity to choose how we respond. Working through supervision encourages us to become aware of our own drivers, and to let go of old and stuck ways of thinking and behaving. Offering a regular pause for reflection opens us up to new possibilities, becoming creative, with a wider lens of trust and compassion.

I am passionate about providing the best outcome for people, believing that supervision reveals our own potential. Creating an environment together to explore the impact of your work, by supporting your development towards trusting your own strengths and capabilities while creating space for personal reflection. A place where you can review and reflect on your work and learn from your experience. I draw on a range of modalities and experiences to support your personal growth and your confidence, energy and compassion as a professional.

Most of all, I believe supervision is collaborative. Building together a supportive, safe relationship that makes space for you to explore challenging areas of work such as ethical dilemmas, unconscious bias, complex responses to your work. Along the way, you can become more skilled, insightful, creative and more beneficial to those you work with.

Background and Experience

I have being practicing as a Counsellor, Naturopath, Supervisor and Gestalt Therapist for over 25 years in private practice, within organisations and groups.

Having practiced as a Naturopath for some time, I realized that mental health was such an integral part of the process moving towards health and well-being. This inspired me to study Gestalt Psychotherapy to deepen my understanding of human behaviour. Now armed with life’s experiences and trained in these areas, I am able to offer support and guidance for you to get to know yourself better, resolve issues, find peace, and make changes in your life. It is well worth the effort to becoming a happier, healthier person.