Dallas P Bentley

After many years working in both government and non-government positions as a practitioner and educator I wanted to provide clients with an affordable and confidential counselling service.

In my counselling framework I adhere to the following principles:

Emphasises the reflexive nature of therapeutic relationships in which the client and therapist co-construct meanings in dialogue or conversations.

I move away from hierarchical distinctions toward a more egalitarian offering of ideas and respect for differences.

I maintain genuine empathy and respect for the client’s predicament and a belief in the power of therapeutic conversation to liberate suppressed, ignored, or previously unacknowledged voices or stories.

I work toward co-constructed goals and negotiate direction in therapy, placing the client in the driver’s seat, as an expert on his or her own predicament and dilemmas.

I searches for and amplify my clients competencies, strengths, and resources and I avoid being a detective of pathology or reifying rigid diagnostic distinctions.

I avoid a vocabulary of deficit and dysfunction, replacing the jargon of pathology (and distance) with the language of the everyday and am oriented toward the future and optimistic about change.

THE BENEFITS OF ZOOM /TELE-HEALTH / ONLINE THERAPY

This can be helpful if you are experiencing social anxiety or are uncomfortable attending a therapy office or have young children at home. This also helps with any ‘stigma’ challenges around attending therapy sessions, or discomfort sitting in waiting rooms, or fears of seeing someone you know.

All counselling services are conducted via zoom/tele-health online therapy platforms.