Bernie Joy Counselling & Psychotherapy

Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy

My way of working
I am an existential, phenomenological psychotherapist.
This may sound a bit cumbersome but the phenomenological part describes looking in an even and open way at what you bring to me in therapy, whilst the
existential part refers to helping you make sense of your life as it is at the moment and recognizing that although it may seem difficult, you do have some choices.

Existential therapy is a relationship and a conversation.
I am not a therapist who just sits and listens and from time to time nods his head. As in everyday life, the quality of conversation relies on the quality of the relationship. I see it as one of my tasks to help you to feel sufficiently at ease so that we may have some open conversation and discover what choices you have in your present situation.

I do not label my clients.

Happiness and sadness have a place in therapy as in the rest of life.
I don't think of laughter as being exclusively about happiness or tears exclusively about sadness. I see them as an existential fact of life, unique to the moment and the person. I might ask in therapy what the tears or the laughter meant for the client rather than assume that I knew. But then I do ask a lot of questions!

Couple counselling.
I like to see couples for four initial 50 minute sessions.