Psychosocial support
for individuals, couples and families who have
experienced or may be experiencing:
- Trauma
- Grief & Loss
- Physical Health Challenges
- Life Transitions
- Life and Relationship Challenges
Group support, debriefing and psychosocial training also available
Counselling Services
Trauma Support
I provide a safe, gentle and informed space to deal with the aftermath of trauma. I offer support to you in identifying, understanding and diffusing emotions, thoughts and behaviours that might feel overwhelming and confusing following such an event or events.
Trauma can occur when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that feel out of our control and overwhelming to our nervous system. Coping with trauma can present unique challenges to you – even if you were not directly involved in the event. My role is to assist you to process the trauma and to find healthy ways to cope with its after-effects. I have a particular interest in the link between mind and body in processing trauma.
In addition to debriefing, I am qualified to offer Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) intervention where appropriate.
Grief and Loss
I offer counselling to individuals or groups who are experiencing grief and loss and provide a safe space for exploring the physical and emotional responses you may be experiencing.
Bereavement is a type of grief following the loss of a loved one. There is obviously other grief that can be experienced just as acutely – including the loss of a beloved pet.
You may be struggling to cope with a different form of loss in your life that might arise from separation, divorce, broken relationships, children leaving home, retirement, loss of health or a change in life circumstances.
Grief is a uniquely individual journey. My experience allows me to be along side you in your own particular experience. I can assist you to explore your feelings of loss and to better understand the tasks involved in this process of grief. I offer the emotional support to facilitate your movement towards fostering resilience, developing your coping skills and adapting to your new norm.
Physical Health Issues
My personal journey back into the field of psychology arose from a couple of serious medical diagnoses and interventions in my immediate family.
In each case, the physical medical intervention was superb, but there was not much attention given to the emotional needs of the patient. I recognized that each required a trauma counselling that was not that different from the trauma support so readily available in South Africa to any survivor of crime related trauma.
You may have received a medical diagnosis that has impacted the way you live your life or have coped with a life threatening medical issue. Or you may be in a situation where health issues challenge your normally effective coping skills.
I offer you a safe space to understand, explore and manage your responses and to assist you to adapt to your new reality with effective coping mechanisms.
Life Transitions
Our lives are a continual challenge of adapting to changing circumstances.
These transitions may be linked to our life stage, age, circumstances, or health. Even a positive transition might come with loss too. All tend to come with a high level of uncertainty.
Feelings of overwhelm when faced with transition and uncertainty are normal responses but do threaten our sense of stability and our ability to cope
If you are facing such challenges and sense of overwhelm, I offer you a safe space to understand, explore and to manage your thoughts, feelings and responses and to thereby to assist you in adapting to your new reality.
Life and Relationship Challenges
We all experience challenges within our personal, family, social and work lives. Sometimes these feel overwhelming and it is difficult to see our way through them. This may have an adverse effect on our mental health.
In these situations, I provide a safe, objective, non-judgemental and warm environment where you are able to explore and understand your feelings, emotions and behavior. I can assist you to unpack expectations and to explore behavior patterns of which you may be unaware.
My aim would be to work with you to facilitate self awareness, understanding and growth such that the challenge may prove to empower rather than diminish you.
How it Works
Each session is 60 minutes.
You are welcome to call me prior to booking a session to discuss any queries or concerns you might have about coming to counselling.
At the end of the first session, I will advise you of a suggested counselling plan to which you would then have the choice of committing. This would include an agreed number of sessions as well as whether you would come to counselling weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
For many clients, short term intervention – i.e. just a few sessions – is sufficient. Your counselling plan will be discussed and reviewed with you on a regular basis.
Payment
You may choose to pay cash, pay via Snapscan or PayPal or do an EFT.
I am registered with the Council for Counsellors and sessions are therefore not covered by medical aids.
Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 04 of 2013 (“POPIA”), We have a general legal duty to protect the information we process. I am committed to ensuring the security and protection of this personal information and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection.
Should you have any questions related to my POPIA compliance, please contact me at cath@cathrackstraw.com.
