Cedar Counselling Services

Our Approaches

Our counsellors use a range of the following approaches in their counselling. If you are particularly interested in any of these approaches, please mention it when you contact us.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
This combines Cognitive and Behavioural techniques. Clients are taught ways to change thoughts and expectations and relaxation techniques are used. It has been effective for stress-related ailments, phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and (at the same time as drug treatment) major depression.

Family Therapy
This is used to treat a family system rather than individual members of the family. A form of Systemic Therapy, it requires specifically trained counsellors.

Humanistic Therapy
Coming from the “personal growth movement” this approach encourages people to think about their feelings and take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. Emphasis is on self-development and achieving highest potential. “Client-Centred” or “Non-Directive” approach is often used and the therapy can be described as “holistic” or looking at person as a whole. The client’s creative instincts may be used to explore and resolve personal issues.

Integrative Therapy
This is when several distinct models of counselling and psychotherapy are used together.

Person-Centred Therapy
Devised by Carl Rogers and also called “Client-Centred” or “Rogerian” counselling, this is based on the assumption that a client seeking help in the resolution of a problem they are experiencing, can enter into a relationship with a counsellor who is sufficiently accepting and permissive to allow the client to freely express any emotions and feelings. This will enable the client to come to terms with negative feelings, which may have caused emotional problems, and develop inner resources. The objective is for the client to become able to see himself as a person, with the power and freedom to change, rather than as an object.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy/Counselling
This approach stresses the importance of the unconscious and past experience in shaping current behaviour. The client is encouraged to talk about childhood relationships with parents and other significant people and the therapist focuses on the client/therapist relationship (the dynamics) and in particular on the transference.
Transference is when the client projects onto the therapist feelings experienced in previous significant relationships.

The Psychodynamic approach is derived from Psychoanalysis but usually provides a quicker solution to emotional problems.

Relationship Therapy
Relationship counselling enables the parties in a relationship to recognise repeating patterns of distress and to understand and manage troublesome differences that they are experiencing. The relationship involved may be between, for example, members of a family (see also Family Therapy) or a couple, or work colleagues.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
This promotes positive change rather than dwelling on past problems. Clients are encouraged to focus positively on what they do well and to set goals and work out how to achieve them. As little as 3 or 4 sessions may be beneficial.

Trauma therapy (EMDR)
When a person is involved in a distressing event, they may feel overwhelmed and their brain may be unable to process the information like a normal memory. When a person recalls the distressing memory, the person can re-experience what they saw, heard, smelt, tasted or felt, and this can be quite intense. Some find that the distressing memories come to mind when something reminds them of the distressing event, or sometimes the memories just seem to just pop into mind. The alternating left-right stimulation of the brain with eye movements, sounds or taps during EMDR, seems to stimulate the frozen or blocked information processing system.

In the process the distressing memories seem to lose their intensity, so that the memories are less distressing and seem more like 'ordinary' memories. The effect is believed to be similar to that which occurs naturally during REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) when your eyes rapidly move from side to side. EMDR helps reduce the distress of all the different kinds of memories, whether it was what you saw, heard, smelt, tasted, felt or thought.

For more information on our Counselling Services in Birmingham, please contact us.