What is Counselling?
Counselling is a supportive process in which you meet with a professional trained in a form of talking therapy to explore areas of your life that may be causing tension, strain, or even distress. Usually, counselling takes place in an indoor setting, such as an office, studio, or a designated space within a counsellor’s residence, offering added comfort for the client. On some occasions, outdoor environments are incorporated into the counselling process, depending on the nature of the work and its appropriateness. With careful consideration of confidentiality, outdoor spaces such as walking areas (also known as walk-and-talk therapy) and other open settings like coffee shops may be used for therapeutic encounters.
Counselling should not be seen as limited to a single space. The time spent is intended to be uplifting and freeing. The counsellor’s role is to aid and support that process, regardless of the location in which the encounters take place. Ultimately, the space is designed to offer as much room and opportunity as possible to talk about absolutely anything you wish, allowing your mind to go where it needs to—without judgement from the other person, who holds genuine acceptance and positive regard for you as a top priority.
The counselling space is designed to allow your lived experiences to pass through you freely. Having the space and opportunity to do this may encourage new insights, reflections, and experiences to emerge in your life—insights that you can use in your efforts to build your identity and sense of self. Increased awareness and understanding have the potential to help you gain more confidence and control, and to realise that there may have been things you never imagined yourself capable of achieving—yet you are achieving them.
Counselling offers the opportunity to show yourself that you are more capable than you once believed, acquiring new skills simply through engaging with the process, often without even realising it. You might find yourself responding in positively different ways to situations, only recognising the change after the interaction has occurred. Counselling is hard work, but it holds every possibility of being just as rewarding and enriching.Counselling, whether approached in the short or long term, is intended to be as flexible and adaptable as possible, encouraging an environment in which you have the opportunity to decide how the time is spent. A counsellor’s role is to follow your lead along the road—walking beside you and facilitating your growth as you explore and discover things about yourself that can help you overcome challenges.
You might have heard that counsellors are trained listeners. However, that’s not all they do. They also draw upon counselling theory to inform their work, applying methods that help you explore more freely—while still maintaining important control and self-awareness. For instance, a counsellor may have received training and gained experience in the area you wish to explore. They bring energy and insight to the process, shedding light on the subject through both professional knowledge and personal understanding. This can help increase your self-awareness and deepen your insight into your situation.
Counselling supports you in exploring your inner world experiences.This is just one of the many ways a counsellor can assist in your journey. Particularly in the person-centred approach, there is no attempt to impose authority or control. Instead, the counsellor offers their training, experience, and knowledge in service of your growth—never to dominate, but to support.
Some of The Benefits To Counselling
Myths Vs Reality: Understanding Counselling
Counselling comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s one of the most diverse professions in the world, which is incredible — because people have a choice in how they want their counselling to look and feel. However, there are some assumptions about counselling that seem to have come from many sources. The media is a significant one. I can be the most critical viewer when it comes to watching depictions of counselling settings on TV. One moment I’m jumping up and down with joy because they finally got it right; the next, I’m disappointed that further improvements are still needed.
Shows like In Treatment portray a psychotherapist to my satisfaction — although, as always, there’s room for improvement. Then there are the more dramatic portrayals: a client smashing the therapist’s car to pieces with a baseball bat. I’m left wondering whether they brought the bat into session, anticipating the moment, and what exactly the therapist did to ignite such frustration and prosecution-level rage.
In my 13 years of practice, I’ve never once had someone angry with me to that extent — in or out of the counselling room. Or maybe they were, and they just didn’t know where I parked my car. (Although, good communication has meant it never even becoming an issue...)
There are myths circulating about counselling that might be useful to know. They can help you reflect on your expectations of therapy and what it can do for you — before you enter therapy — so that you can explore them with your counsellor in more detail when you meet.
Confidentiality in Counselling
Confidentiality is one of the most important components of counselling. It allows someone to feel safe enough to speak freely, without having to worry or second-guess whether what they’ve said might get back to someone else—or be used against them at any point.
Confidentiality is a professional term that means, under only the most extreme circumstances, a practitioner may share something that has been spoken about. The practitioner has a duty to uphold this commitment for the sake of your trust and the relationship you have with them. This means that nobody outside of that relationship should be privy to what’s shared. That commitment requires more than just reassurances—it calls for a genuine, felt sense of trust.
There may have been times when you trusted someone, only to find that they broke your trust. Sadly, this can happen even with professionals.
The reasons for disclosure might be justified or unjustified. But if you’ve been deeply affected by someone sharing personal information without your consent, you may be left feeling that it was not acceptable—perhaps even finding that it impacts future relationships, both personally and professionally.
In counselling, trust is typically built over time. Counsellors generally refer to confidentiality at the beginning of the process to assure clients that whatever is shared remains protected. A professional who shares information about you around a dinner table and believes it’s acceptable simply because no names were used is not what confidentiality means or how it's supposed to work! From both a moral and legal standpoint, they have broken your confidence by sharing unnecessarily. Confidentiality means nobody. No “ifs,” no “buts,” not even “if there was no chance of you finding out.” What kind of relationship would that be promoting?
🔐 When Confidentiality Must Be Extended
There are a few instances when confidentiality must be extended, and in most cases, this is due to legal obligations or to protect you or others if there is any form of immediate risk. Here is some clarity on the exceptions in the UK:
- If you or someone else is at immediate risk of harm
- If anything disclosed falls within the scope of the Children Act
- If anything shared is considered a serious crime—this may include money laundering, terrorism, drug trafficking, or serious driving offences
🌿Confidentiality In Counselling Supervision
In addition to these legal exceptions, counsellors may also speak about aspects of their work with a counselling supervisor. The supervisor is another professional they meet with regularly to explore how they are doing in relation to their work. It’s more like counselling for counsellors.
This process involves less about the client’s content directly and more about the counsellor’s emotional responses and reflections on the work. In these conversations, any information that might personally identify a client is excluded, and if necessary, pseudonyms are used to protect anonymity.
Counsellor Do's & Dont's
