Phil Mitchell

Counselling with me is not just sitting and talking; it can be used to help people tackle their problems, eliminate barriers, understand their situation, take control, take action, and make change.

Details of my approach to counselling, and of the therapeutic approaches I feel competent to use can be found below.

I work with clients to help them make the best use of our time together by identifying what they’d like to achieve from counselling and by trying to ensure they gain something useful from the sessions. I often adopt a straight talking, direct approach where thoughts can be challenged, options can be explored, emotions can be expressed, and alternative perspectives can be offered.

I help clients tackle problems, take control and take action. I offer therapeutic support for emotional difficulties, I provide techniques to deal with stress and anxiety, and I provide an understanding to why you respond/behave the way you do including how and why your brain works the way it doe.s

I am an eclectic counsellor/psychotherapist which means I use different elements of therapeutic approaches, namely Person Centred Counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. See below.

Person Centred Counselling
The Person Centred approach believes that as human beings we will move towards doing what is best for us when we are provided with the right environment in which the therapeutic core conditions of empathy, acceptance and genuineness can be experienced. Person Centred counselling and psychotherapy has a strong focus on a positive relationship being established between client and counsellor. As someone who has received and provided Person Centred counselling I can see from a personal and professional level the benefits this way of working can bring. If you’d like to know more about the Person Centred approach please visit The Person Centred Association.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT focuses on exploring a person’s thought process and perception of their situation. This approach believes that how we think about our situation and the beliefs that we attach to it affect our behaviour and in turn create the emotions we struggle to deal with. CBT highlights that by thinking differently about our situation, we will then behave and feel differently. If you’d like to know more about CBT please visit The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Solution Focused Brief Therapy aims make effective use of time by focusing more on solutions rather than problems. The approach aims to create positive change by identifying a person’s preferred and realistic future and by building on what a person is already doing, or has already done to effectively manage their situation. If you’d like to know more about the Solution-Focused Brief  Therapy approach please visit the UK Association for Solution Focused Practice.