London - Central > WG : 1 > Leanne Hoffman Name:   Leanne Hoffman    I practise at:   MSCP, 39 Margaret Street, London, WG1   Website:   http://www.hoffmancounselling.co.uk     Phone:   07505081504      Professional    membership:   BACP  -  British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy   FPC  -  Foundation for Psychotherapy and Counselling   My focus is on helping relieve many difficult states of mind. People come to counselling for many reasons: A significant event such as a bereavement. A relationship breakdown. Career crisis. Seeking direction or meaning in life. A desire to break unhealthy patterns of behaviour. A general sense of unhappiness, anxiety and loneliness. It often feels that this is just the way it is, but counselling can help deal with these emotions. Counselling offers a unique and confidential relationship that can help you make sense of your life. It provides you with a safe and supportive environment to explore thoughts, feelings and concerns. Feelings like anxiety, depression, and unhappiness are often linked to past experiences and emotions that are hidden deep inside of us. Therapy can help bring these into our consciousness providing people with a better understanding of many difficult states of mind. Gaining insight into what is driving your thoughts and behaviour can dramatically change your outlook, improving how you feel and how you interact with others. Not seen a counsellor before? Questions answered. Will you tell my employer? No. I adhere to strict professional guidelines about confidentiality and will not tell anyone about your sessions. How confidential is counselling? Counselling is highly confidential in that everything spoken about in the room remains private. The only time that confidentiality might be broken is if I thought there was a real risk to someone's safety. Can I pay by cash? You can pay by cash or cheque. Unfortunately I cannot accept credit or debit cards. Can I really be back at my desk in an hour? Sessions are 50 minutes so if you work near by this is possible. How long will counselling take? This is determine by your situation and what you want. Short term counselling generally consists of 12 sessions. Long term work is open ended. A year in counselling can be useful but often benefits come after several years. Some people are resistant to long term work because it can be painful dealing with the issues that surface. But the benefits of persevering are life changing. People do not question whether they should stop going to the gym after a year! I have heard counselling is just about sitting in silence. Is this true? Not at all although sometimes silence can help people reflect and delve deeper. I always wait for clients to initiate the session so that they begin with what is on their mind not mine. Similarly I will sometimes take the time to think about what has been said. People's discomfort with silence reflects how hard it is to be with someone else and be free to wander around in your mind. I have heard counsellors are often cold and won't answer simple questions about themselves? I do not like to give details about my life because it detracts from the counselling process. If you feel you have to ask how I am or take into consideration my emotional state then it is harder to concentrate on what you need from the sessions. Will you think my problems are not as bad as others? Mental distress is debilitating regardless of how your experiences compare to others. My focus is to help ease difficult states of mind, not to judge whether you are right to feel as you do. What type of counselling do you offer and how does it fit with CBT or other types? The world of counselling is confusing to navigate with many interchangeable terms. I offer psychodynamic counselling. This concentrates on the root cause of distress and through understanding, comes change or some form of acceptance. It is routed in the Freudian principle of finding out more about the unconscious processes that drive behaviour. For example someone keeps finishing relationships despite being desperate to find 'the one'. Psychodynamic counselling would focus on exploring the past to explain why this keeps recurring. CBT counselling would concentrate on your thought process, patterns of behaviour and what strategies would help break the cycle. There are obviously a whole host of other therapies. Wikipedia is a useful site for more descriptions. Is Freud outdated and just interested in sex? Definitely not. Like all founders his views and theories have been updated and revised. But he introduced us to so many significant ideas that it would be wrong to dismiss him out of hand. Without Freud we might not have our current insight into dreams, the unconscious, the part our childhood plays in our future and so much more. My work with clients draws on Freud's ideas aswell as a host of other prominent analysts. Qualifications & Training I am a fully qualified counsellor and undertook my professional training at WPF Counselling and Psychotherapy, graduating with the WPF Advanced Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy. Experience My areas of expertise are depression, anxiety, stress, low self esteem, addiction, issues with identity, relationship difficulties, anger and loss. I have experience of working with long and short term clients. In addition I have have worked in vocational training and development for the past 13 years, helping people change behaviours and learn new skills. Fees My fee for each 50 minute session is £50 although I do offer some reduced fee sessions for people with low incomes. Key words for this entry: Individual Counselling, Adults, Men, Women, Long-term, Short-term, Time-limited, Face-to-face, Train the Trainer, Training/tutoring, Workshop, Concessionary rates, Low-cost sessions, Abortion, Abuse, Addiction, Aging, Anger, Anxiety, Attachment, Bereavement, Body image, Commitment, Conflict, Depression, Divorce, Separation, Eating, Gender, Identity, Insomnia, Loss, Self-esteem, Miscarriage, Narcissism, Panic, Parenting, Postnatal Depression, Psychosexual, Psychosomatic, Rape, Relationships, Self-confidence, Self-harm, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Stress, Substance Abuse, Suicide, Trauma, Unemployment, Weight, Workplace, Counselling, Freudian, Jungian, Psychodynamic, Psychotherapy.