I am a Gestalt counsellor and obtained my
qualifications from the Gestalt Centre London. I have worked with a large
number of clients with a broad variety of issues.
A common theme has often been that clients go through a major transition in
their life, be it personal, professional or health related and I am there
to support them until they feel better equipped to face their lives without
me.
People come to me for help to move out of a situation that doesn’t suit
them any more. They know they want change, however don’t know how to
accomplish that. My interest lies in what empowers a person, how they make
meaning of their experiences of themselves, their relationships and their
lives, how they cope and what it is that makes them appreciate themselves.
I have a passion for assisting people in becoming true to themselves. I enjoy
seeing clients facing their challenges with more ease and gaining trust in
their inherent self-regulating wisdom.
Sessions are on a weekly basis and last for 50 minutes. The duration of counselling
depends on the individual. In the first session both the client and I get
a chance to get to know each other and to decide whether we want to work with
each other. The client needs to have the feeling that this is right for them.
Once we decide to work with each other, clients often stay for 7 initial sessions
to see how the process works for them, then they decide whether they want
to continue for longer in order to explore their issues at a deeper level
and commit to long-term work.
I practice at The Gestalt Centre in the City of London, near Old Street tube
station, in London Bridge and at Queen’s Park. I offer daytime as well
as evening slots and charge £40 per session.
What is Gestalt therapy?
My principal approach is Gestalt. The Gestalt approach believes that every
person has the natural ability to heal and grow by themselves. The therapist
is there to aid that process.
Often it is a question of learning to undo certain behaviour patterns in order
to flow more easily with one’s life. Sometimes the trust in this process
has to be worked on, since people tend to think they need to “do”
something, whereas often not “doing” something aids the human
system to rebalance and harmonize itself.
Gestalt states that awareness is enough in order to facilitate change. It
is a holistic approach and bases everything on being aware of oneself. The
counsellor uses all her resources and knowledge to help the client to discover
their own unique truth. Gestalt therapy is a caring, welcoming and creative
approach in which the counsellor remains open and respectful of the client’s
experience. It has drawn its inspiration from many different theories as well
as Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The aim is always to increase awareness. The Gestalt
counsellor is concerned with the meaning a client gives to his or her life-events,
experiences and relationships with other people. She is concerned with the
client’s faithfulness to him or herself as a person.
Often clients come because they want to initiate a change in their lives.
If what is wished for is not the same as what is “now” a client
feels stuck. Counselling helps exploring these two states and helps to stay
in what is here “now” so the client can start to experience a
flow from his or her stuckness again. Ideally what is wished for then becomes
a by-product of a healthier attitude to his “here and now” experience.
A goal of therapy is looking at what is rather than focussing on what is not
here yet, so that paradoxically change can happen. Our belief is that change
cannot happen unless we first embrace and fully look at what is. So in a way
our goal becomes a by-product of being and staying in the momentary experience.
Like it is with happiness: it isn’t a goal by itself but a by-product
of healthy living. We believe that healthy human change can happen through
squarely facing what life has to offer us “here and now”.
Aspects Gestalt counselling can offer you:
1. Learning how to break out of limiting behaviour patterns that don’t
bring you what you say you’d like to see or experience in your life.
2. Learning to stay in the present moment, rather than being consumed by thoughts
about the past (regrets) or thoughts about the future (worries).
3. Learning to express yourself authentically
and communicate clearly what it is you want and need.
4. Learning to live in the here and now of your reality, smelling, sensing,
seeing and trusting the self-regulating wisdom of your own being.
5. Learning to assess correctly when it may be appropriate to take action
in your life in order to effect a change.
6. Learning to recognise thoughts that don’t serve you and developing
more awareness around your thought-processes and internal conflicts.
7. Daring to face unpleasant as well as pleasant experiences in your life,
without judging them or comparing them with other people’s experiences,
but rather seeing them for what they really are.
8. Learning to trust and listen to yourself only, rather than living your
life by external points of references such as “shoulds” and “oughts”.
9. Developing more awareness around your thoughts, feelings and actions and
learning to take full responsibility for them, learning to actively create
your life and your experiences.
And finally and most importantly: Daring to be as you are.
“We find by losing. We hold fast
by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old.”
Frederick Buechner
To arrange a session, please phone or write an email:
Simone Huber
Gestalt Counsellor
Telephone: 020 8830 6268
Mobile: 07903 938 737
Email: counsel@simonehuber.com
I am a member of the British Association for
Counselling and Psychotherapy and abide by their code of ethics.
For further information see: www.bacp.co.uk