Counselling

A counsellor is someone who has had specialist training to work with people to help them resolve their difficulties without judging. There are many different types of counselling approaches. The British Association of Counselling is the professional body who overseas all registered counsellors.

There are a variety of different counselling approaches. You may find that some fit with you better than others.

For example Cognitive Behavioural Therapy aims to help individuals to understand what triggers certain behaviours. It involves recognising that you are thinking in a negative way and changing your thought processes. The therapist works with this information to help the person to change. All of our feelings are a response to a thought. If the thought is negative, the resulting feelings will be negative - sadness or depression. If you can change the negative thoughts into positive ones, the resulting feeling should be good rather than bad.

You can be referred for counselling by your doctor.  If you are at school, college or university you may have access to a free counsellor on site. Some are available all the time and others you will have to make an appointment for. You can also access counselling privately, there is often a cost for this. There are organisations that provide free confidential counselling to young people. To find out more about access to counselling in your area you can look at our help finder. Another place that you can look for free counselling is the Youth Access database where you can look for help in your area.