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John Hilsdon

Certified By: BACP
From: I work online, United Kingdom (UK)
Type of session: Via Skype, Secure Video Call, Secure Text Chat, Via Phone, In-Person
Also speaks: English
Therapist Profile Image
Specialty: Abuse, Addiction, Affairs, Anger, Anxiety, Conduct Disorders, Depression, Development disorders, Dissociative disorders, Education, Family, Grief, Health, Identity, Mood, Obsessive compulsive disorders, Personality disorders, Relationships, Self - Esteem, Sexual difficulties, Sleep concerns, Stress, Trauma, Unemployment, Work
Target Age Group: Teenager, Adult, Me and my partner
Therapist Since: 01/02/1999
Hourly Rate 55£
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Trial Rate 15£

About Me

I have been a counsellor for over 20 years, working with people of all ages and from many different social and cultural backgrounds. I love working online because it brings a clear and powerful focus to communication, supporting the positive changes my clients are seeking to make in their lives.

I have worked in education and counselling for most of my working life, beginning as a teacher in adult and further education, then as a university lecturer, a head of department and wellbeing services manager. I have worked as a counsellor since 1999. I am a big music fan, an animal lover, traveller and an outdoorsy person – but I love cities too! I really enjoy my counselling work because I love people. We are all so different – and yet we share that essential thing of being human and living in this extraordinary, beautiful and sometimes cruel and terrifying world. If you choose to work with me, I will do my utmost to help you, to respect your uniqueness as a person, and to be with you in working through whatever issues your bring to the counselling sessions.

My Certificates

My Qualifications

My Experience

I am experienced in helping clients to overcome issues of anxiety, stress, depression, sadness, grief, fear, loneliness, anger, uncertainty and underconfidence. I can support you to face problems that may have arisen from your family and personal history, relationships, work and professional situations, or traumatic events, addictions or dependencies. I can help you to develop confidence and clarity about your goals and to boost your motivation and level of optimism to make constructive changes in your life. I will work with you to deal with life’s ever-changing challenges. Most importantly, I will help you to develop the relationship in your life which affects everything about you – in other words, the relationship that you have with yourself!

My Approach

I believe that everyone has the potential to make sense of their lives, to understand how problems arise and to make conscious decisions and changes which will improve their everyday experience. Counselling can help with this. I will listen to you carefully and check what I have heard, giving you the chance to clarify your own understandings. In some cases, this is enough to help you decide how to solve a problem; in others, it may mean ‘coming to terms’ with what cannot be changed. I follow the ‘existential’ principle that each person can find meaning from their experience of life and can make conscious and responsible choices. I modify how I work with each person to suit their needs, beliefs and preferences, choosing techniques drawn from a range of methods including Person-Centred Counselling; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; and Transactional Analysis.

Please note a trial/initial session lasts approximately 20 – 30 minutes is available either online or by telephone at a cost of £15. This will allow you to decide if this kind of counselling will suit you and whether or not you want to work with me, before making a bigger financial commitment.

Reviews

  1. 5 out of 5

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    My Experience

    I have been asked to leave a review for John, which I am more than happy to do. I am myself a Psychotherapist and when choosing someone to work with, I had some specific criteria. I wanted someone close to my age, male, who uses a completely different theory to the one I use in my own work. In the initial chat with john I spoke about what I wanted to achieve from the counselling. John helped me to define what that was and over the course of four or five months now, I have settled many of the things I entered counselling to do. John has taken the time to understand my upbringing and the coping techniques I had learned and used in the past, and together we have assessed what is still useful and what is not John has also showed me new ways in which to care for my mental wellbeing. I now use the sessions we have to relieve some of the tensions and anxieties that affect me in my work. I am more than happy to recommend John to anyone looking for a helpful, non judgmental, counsellor who is able to support and suggest ways that will help you to help yourself. Roy Berrington Psychotherapist and M.D at Holate