Counselling Service
What is Counselling?
My approach
I am an Auckland based Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist with a passion for helping people overcome challenges, find balance and realize their greatest potential.
Moving from surviving to thriving
I work with adults, children, athletes and businesspeople to redesign the subconscious part of the mind — the one that drives behaviour, emotions, and performance. My work inspires a new way of living, taking a mindset of surviving to one of thriving. People of all ages and demographics come to my practice because stress, health issues, family disruptions and trauma affect most of us at some time in our lives.
Balance, clarity, stability & connection
As a Counsellor with 20 years of training and experience, I can help you move towards more balance in your emotions, clarity in your mind, stability in your body, and connection in your heart. My unique approach works with all aspects of you: your thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physiology, to restore healthy balance, integration and connection in body and mind.
A safe, confidential space
In my practice I strive to hold a safe, confidential space to meet each person I work with, accepting where you are in this moment, without judgment and with compassion for our shared human experience.
Trained Counsellor in Auckland
Whilst there are other Therapists in Auckland, I pride myself in providing a caring and nurturing style of counselling. When you do self-improvement work, it is important that you are doing it with a trained specialist who really cares about your results.
Counselling in Auckland and beyond
Sessions are available at my Auckland office and via Skype / Zoom for clients from all over the world. If you would like to book a session or talk further to find out if working together is a good fit for you, then please contact me on 021 274 6078 for a free & no obligation phone consultation.
Relating to the self
What lies at the core of the majority of challenges that people face is the way they consciously and unconsciously relate to themselves. Although this concept can seem simple at the outset, I believe that developing a loving and compassionate relationship with oneself is one of the most powerful acts that any of us can undertake. At the heart of each person lies incredible gifts of strength, wisdom, intuition, and creativity. Learning to relate to yourself with greater kindness and love frees you up to recognize your own innate gifts and take meaningful risks in sharing them more freely with the world.
My counselling philosophy
The key to any positive counselling experience is feeling safe, understood, and respected by your therapist. I have a highly relational way of practicing therapy, and I focus on building connection and trust at the foundation of my relationship with each client.
What is counselling? Rather than simply focusing on eliminating difficult symptoms, I will work collaboratively with you to explore, identify, and heal the core issues that lie beneath them, at your own pace. This can often involve gaining clarity on patterns of thinking, behaviour, and emotions that might be keeping you stuck or unhappy, supporting you to unburden and heal from past and present hurts, and building practical and holistic skills for relating to yourself, your emotions, relationships, and life’s circumstances with kindness and acceptance.
What is counselling with me – How do I work?
You decide what you are willing to share.
The focus of the sessions is up to you. I will never force you to speak about anything you are uncomfortable with. You have the right to your boundaries. I am here to help you enter therapy through invitation and collaboration with you at every turn. I make it clear that you have the right to say no and to have that respected.
I go into material that you can tolerate.
In a similar way I work at your speed and rhythm. It is important that you do not feel overwhelmed by emotions and painful feelings. Otherwise, you will just shut down again. So, I keep assessing what seems tolerable as we go along. This is not to say I don’t ever challenge but that comes within a trusting and safe relationship.
You will not have to tell the ‘story’ over and over again.
Research shows that just retelling your story over and over is not therapeutic. Details of the story are less important to know unless it is important to tell someone or to process the experience when you are ready and when there is a process in place with your therapist to do this. Going over details again and again is often counterproductive and can be re-traumatising.
You are not alone in your experience.
I strive to provide a safe and compassionate presence to understand your struggles. I have experience and skill in being able to be present to intense feelings, and to the darker side of human experiences. Knowing that someone is beside you can bring comfort and acceptance that makes it easier to bear sensitive and challenging material.
Stages
of Therapy
1. Identifying goals
Usually one of the first steps in counselling is to identify some goals to work towards together and build a counselling ‘road-map’ to meet those goals. These are typically positive changes that you would like to see in your life and can act as markers along the journey to let us know we’re on the right track.
2. Your self-care ‘tool box’
After we have a sense of what the issues to address are, we can work together to create stability by increasing self-awareness and building inner resources that help you feel safe, understood, empowered, and supported, amidst difficult situations and/or intense emotions. This is where your self-care ‘tool box’ and powers of mindfulness, emotion regulation, grounding, and supporting a healthy nervous system are cultivated.
3. Shifting patterns and beliefs
Once you feel ready, we can slowly move from surface symptoms to the core root, or wound(s), where challenges arise from. What we know from mental health research and experience is that deeper experiences of unresolved trauma and old wounds can often manifest as a number of different issues, ranging from relationship difficulties, physical pain, emotional dis-regulation, anxiety and/or depression, and other challenges. Usually this phase of therapy involves getting to know, and then shifting patterns, beliefs, and core wounds that keep you feeling stuck in your life. When we’re able to address these core wounds, many other difficulties tend to unwind and change, too. This part of counselling can usually feel like the ‘hard work’ or heavy lifting of therapy, and yet this is where profound healing and transformation occurs. Some people choose to end counselling after this stage, while others want to continue to support self-discovery and growth.
4. Embodying more
This next stage is fun! At this point, you’ll likely have a good sense of increased freedom, empowerment, energy, and peace within yourself. From here we can focus on integrating qualities that you would like to more fully embody (such as compassion, love, authenticity, strength, and spirituality), and help you walk through life in a meaningful, joyful, contented, and purposeful way. Counselling isn’t just about resolving difficulties, but also about cultivating a beautiful and happy life.
* What is counselling? Well, like all processes of change and growth, therapy is not linear. But hopefully, these phases give you a sense of what counselling at Wright Therapies can generally look like.
What my clients have said about my counselling & therapy services
“I was referred to Debbie by my GP; he felt that I needed Psychotherapy help after getting quite down due to a number of on-going health issues. His confidence in her abilities were very well justified; she has helped me immeasurably over a very short period of time. Debbie has used counselling and hypnotherapy techniques to get me back on track with my levels of self-confidence, positivity and my general outlook on life has improved greatly. I can highly recommend her services.” –
Owen, Auckland
“From the moment you walk into her space, there is a wonderful, comforting setting. Debbie helps you get in touch with yourself and provides great insights without making too many inferences on your feelings or experience. She has already helped me refocus and I am looking forward to continuing to work with her to improve my skill set with anxiety and depression. Her technique is very gentle and grounding, it allows someone like myself who is often anxious be able to talk freely without feeling judged. I look forward to the sessions, knowing that I’m taking steps towards self-improvement with her guidance.” –
P, Auckland
“While I was honest about coming in for counselling simply to humour my parents, you were nonetheless extremely helpful, considerate, and openminded. You were thorough and kept an open ear to everything that was spoken. I appreciated you looking beneath the surface into who I am as a person and I feel the results you gave me were spot on.” –
Dylan, Auckland
Counselling pricing
60-minute individual counselling session: $130.00
90-minute individual counselling session: $160.00
90-minute couples counselling session: $160.00
*** Payment is due on the same day of our session.
Things happen and I appreciate that your circumstances may necessitate a change in appointment times/dates. If cancelled over 24 hours before a scheduled appointment there will be no charge, however, a full consultation fee will be charged for missed appointments where less than 24 hours or no notice is given. Pre-payments will be forfeited where appointments are not attended without 24 hours’ notice.
I look forward to hearing from you, and finding out how I can support you on your healing journey!
Contact me on 021 274 6078.
What about confidentiality?
Confidentiality is an important part of the therapeutic relationship. Information can only be released to other parties with a signed consent form by the client. Exceptions include when a client is a danger to themselves or others, or when there are concerns about risks to a child under the age of sixteen.
I’m a Hypnotherapist, Massage Therapist and Counsellor that Auckland clients can see for multiple therapeutic services at the one location. Ph 021 274 6078 to gain clarity, find balance and realise your potential.
