Janie Cruse

My working hours are between 09:00 and 19:00 Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, and between 15:00 and 19:00 Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

I am a Â鶹ԭ´´ registered Person-Centred and Integrative Counsellor with over 13 years experience of working with adults and young people. I offer a safe, confidential and non-judmental space in which you will be free to explore your difficulties in the knowledge that you will be understood and geniunely heard. 

I can offer you the opportunity to gain some clarity as we work together to understand the origin of your issues. While you search for solutions, the experience of being heard and of hearing yourself (perhaps for the first time), of having the freedom to deeply explore what has been causing your anxiety, unhappiness, or sense of being 'stuck', will bring about it's own answers. As you reach a greater self awareness, you will discover the solutions which are right for you. 

I have worked as a counsellor within the NHS, and for a local charity supporting children and young people. I have worked in schools, and more recently as the lead counsellor within the charity's Eating Difficulties Team. I also work with couples, and have a particular interest in supporting parents and step parents as they negotiate the challenges of raising children in both 'traditional' and blended families. 

I feel that parents are so often overlooked in an attempt to meet the needs of their children, and welcome the opportunity to support parents, step-parents and grandparents as you try to make sense of your own experience and the emotional challenges of your teenager's adolescence. You may be looking for a way to try to understand their behaviour, the extent to which they have changed from the little person you have had such an easy relationship with, or simply a place to offload and experience your own support. 

I work in a relaxed and informal way, and my aim in our first session is to put you at ease; to get to know you, and to establish what you are looking for from our work together. The way we then continue will depend on what you feel would be appropriate for you. 

My core training was in Person Centred Counselling (PCA), which allows you the freedom within therapy to be listened to and deeply understood as you explore past or present events in your life and how these have made you feel. The experience of being seen and accepted without judgement can lead to clarity and self-compassion, which may be a new experience for you, and an understanding of what your emotion (and sometimes your body) is trying to tell you.  

I can offer you a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) informed approach which, while being perhaps less structured than a more clinical CBT peice of work, will use the CBT premise that our experience and therefore our behaviours are informed by the stories we tell ourselves about us, the world and others. This can be very helpful for those struggling with anxiety, depression, eating disorders and OCD, although I will always leave you plently of space to explore what is going on in your life, and factors that may have influenced and contibuted to your difficulties. 

My counselling approach is also informed by Transactional Analysis (TA) which will help you to identify long standing patterns in behaviour (both yours, and those around you) and to find ways to begin to understand, challenge, and make changes to these behaviours, so that you start to feel more in control of your emotional responses to difficult situations. 

Throughout our work, we may touch upon elements from one or all of these appproaches, and also think about what it is that you need from the significant others in you life (partners, parents, friends) and what they need from you, with a view to improving and deepening these relationships. 

Our first session will serve as an assessment, but will offer you plenty of space to talk about what you want to bring to therapy. 

I may make some notes in this session, as it is an opportunity to get to know you, and this may involve a lot of information that is important and relevant to how we will choose to work together. 

Our work will be led by you, and I will never put pressure on you to book further sessions. You may feel you are happy to end after a few sessions, or that you want to continue for more long term work. I can advise with regard to what I feel may be helpful for you, but my aim is that you will always feel comfortable to end our sessions when you feel ready.