Why counselling and where am I now?

​

In 2016 I took a leap of faith and left a long standing arts career to pursue my counselling training after long consideration and reflection over where I could best be of service in this world.  Before I started training I volunteered at a retreat centre on the Big Island, Hawai’i, where I learned what being of service really means.  This experience set me up well to undertake the rigorous training and to be part of a collective learning process that has forever changed me and reinforced in me that my choice to be a therapist was the right one.  Never in my time training though did I think that we would enter into a pandemic in 2020, nor did I see a world where online therapy was also so readily available, and yet here we are and here we have been.  I have been thankful that the training I undertook gave me the skills to continue my work throughout the pandemic and beyond, to support people during a traumatic time, and to really be of service.  What I see now is that this is still a time of recovery and this is where the 'where am I now' part comes in: I am here now, ready to be of service and work with you should you feel ready to get in touch and come see me.  You don't have to be coming about the pandemic, but if you are we can also work with this and where it has impacted you and how to move forward.  Fear is terrible for us all and I am keen to work with people around fear, ill-health, mortality and grief to help us all heal and move forward as a collective. 

​

At this present moment in 2024 I am looking forward with you all, wondering what might bring you to see me.  In the work I look to connect people to their own potential in a safe and empathic environment using a range of skills, but also by simply holding space for people.  I work from a non-judgmental place where all experiences and feelings are welcome, nothing is off the table.  ​London can be a chaotic city even now and whilst I hope to be of service to a wide range of clients throughout my career, I have been humbled by everything brought to the therapy space over the last five years.  I have a wide range of experience of working with anxiety, sexuality, gender, grief and depression amongst other areas, but please do reach out to discuss what it is you might be bringing as these are just a few of my areas of experience.

​

Having come from an arts background I am well suited to working with people who work both within the arts or who are artists themselves.  Psychosynthesis is itself a creative model that supports the creative process, sometimes this is through guided visualisations and drawings, other times through writing or meditations.  I am also completing further training as an Integrative Psychotherapist this year bringing a greater depth to my work.  Having volunteered at the LGBT+ Switchboard I learnt a lot around community and how to work with LGBTQIA+ clients and have since expanded this knowledge through my client work over the years. I work with a wide range of people and all are welcome.

​

See more in my Welldoing article: https://welldoing.org/article/meet-therapist-melissa-mcgrath