Philip Hardy

I am available for Face to face or online appointments. . My working days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. My working hours are flexible to suit client availability where I can accommodate them ranging between 8:30 to 19:00.

I am an experienced, fully qualified, integrative counsellor offering specialist counselling for people to help cope with life and the challenges it brings. As a mature counsellor, (50+) my many years of experience in listening to people in distress has brought with it a commitment to hearing others, not as I would wish them to be, but how they experience themselves.  How I would like to help you is to truly hear and see you and how things are for you you as you explore what is going on in your life and in within your internal world. Many of my clients tell me that the experience of counselling has allowed them to be seen, heard, understood and accepted for the first time in their lives. We often find in life that our anxieties for instance can arise from a sense that for whatever reason, our level of ability to meet a challenge is lower than we are comfortable with. By exploring your feelings, ways of coping, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, circumstances and sometimes even our long forgotten past, we gain insight into what is reducing our ability to meet the challenge and once we have that insight, we are more able to find a way forward.

 I am experienced in working with clients who are experiencing anxiety and/or depression, low mood, trauma, bereavement, relationship issues, changes of life, coping with illness, identity anxiety and much more. 

My areas of specific expertise are in offering counselling for all genders who are, or have, experienced domestic abuse and violence, rape and sexual violence, and also counselling for those who have been bereaved or are who are experiencing anticipatory grief. Previous to my private practice, I was employed by a large charity supported by the local Police Crime Commissioner's funding to deliver the sexual violence counselling and worked as part of the counselling team for a large hospice in  North East England to offer counselling to families of those who were being cared for there or those who's loved one had recently died.

Many people I work with explain to me how isolating and life-restricting it has been to hold and try to cope with terribly painful experiences, associated emotions and feelings that for many reasons they have not felt safe enough to share with others. Others have struggled to find the source of their pain in a vague and confusing internal world. In my work with others, respect, care and a sense of privilege in respect to their experiences, feelings, beliefs, values, thoughts and emotions is what offer. The work of counselling is at its best a humbling experience for practitioners. I offer kindness, regard for others and my genuine self. People often worry that counsellors may judge them. Judgement to me is always a barrier to true understanding. What would be the value of me judging? How could I hear and understand them fully if I had decided what was "right or wrong" from my own perspective? To me, there is only "action and consequence"  "rather than right or wrong". Truly trying to hear and understand a person without judgment is crucial to my true understanding of that person and by my reflecting that back to the person, it can help them to see their own experience more clearly. The ultimate goal to me is to help others find their true sense of self, away from what has happened to them, and to help unlock choice for them to define their own meaning around their life experiences. Many people find they define themselves and their worth through what has happened to them and can lose their true self and worth on the way. I am educated to a high standard across many theories and methods of psychological intervention, from psychodynamic, person-centred, transactional analysis to cognitive behaviour therapy and psycho education. However, integrating these approaches is only ever useful to help us understand your own human experiences more clearly and only serve to help us understand what is already there.

I offer a first session for free. In this session we will assess if counselling is the correct approach for you and take into account any adjustments we need to take into account or further referrals that may be appropriate. We will look at the contract of work together and ensure you fully understand it and are able to ask questions about it or clarifications.