Richard Pascall - Counselling and Hypnotherapy

I began counselling at a point in my life where I needed a career change, something new in my life. After I looked into counselling and what it meant to be a counsellor, I felt it was something I could learn to do. I have always liked working for myself, so this was a good fit - doing something I thought I'd be pretty good at, being self-employed, and being able to help people overcome some of their problems.

At this point in my counselling career, I have logged around 10,000 hours of face to face work with clients. I have been in private practice for over ten years, and consider myself to be reasonably experienced (I continue to learn about counselling, therapy and people all the time). I am an ethical therapist - I work within my knowledge and training. I receive regular supervision (never see a counsellor who doesn't have supervision), and I make sure that I look after myself. Counselling is hard - it is hard for clients to put themselves in a position of trust with someone they don't know and then tell that counsellor their story. I look to help clients with that difficulty, to make it easier to talk about their feelings and thoughts and problems.