Gill Jackman -- Counsellor: Open-ended counselling

OPEN-ENDED COUNSELLING

Frank Patterson illustration of a road in Sussex used on the Open-Ended Counselling page of Gill Jackman, a counsellor working in the Chew Valley, North Somerset

Open-ended counselling is what I do the most and is informed by long-term training, ongoing professional development and a lot of experience. In order for what is going on under the surface to really be seen, a long-term relationship with a therapist is essential and makes it possible to reach and integrate very deep feelings we are unaware of in everyday life, but which are often driving us.

I think it's true to say all kinds of clichés here - that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear; that you can't get something for nothing, but open-ended counselling is really about embarking on the counselling process with an openness and willingness to not know where this will take you, or how long it will take. A real commitment to counselling enables us to reach the parts that other counselling doesn't reach -- or if it reaches them, although it might be just what's needed in a crisis, it's not for long enough to enable a deepening, life-changing, ongoing difference.

So what is long-term or open-ended counselling and what does it involve? Mostly it involves...

Seeing your counsellor on a weekly basis and not letting anything get in the way of that.
A willingness to stay with all the difficult feelings that may arise and to communicate them to your counsellor so they are shared.
A willingness not to suddenly stop therapy, but to allow a few weeks to plan ending and talk it through with your counsellor as you stick with exploring how you are experiencing things even if the going gets tough.

You can expect to find a sense of safety and empathy from your counsellor and an equal commitment from him/her to not treat sessions casually and always be there, barring illness or calamity.

Long-term/open-ended counselling really creates an opportunity to get beneath the surface of things and to address aspects of your life that you may have never thought about in quite the way talking in confidence, at your own pace, with an experienced counsellor can make possible. But in order for this to happen, the three rules (above) do have to be kept to.

For open-ended counselling, I charge forty-five pounds an hour. I offer a small discount to clients from the Chew Valley.