Hello. My name is Susan Light and I am a qualified Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Consultant, Performace Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Trainer. I am qualified in a number of different therapy techniques that allow me to work with a great variety of people with countless different issues.
For the past 28 years working as a Counsellor and Integrative Psychotherapist, I have encountered such a rich variety of clients as to make my work both very interesting and extremely rewarding. For example, I have worked with people who have been in a serious accident, been bereaved, witnessed a traumatic event or been abused; those going through a relationship breakdown or suffering from workplace stress; people with drug, alcohol or other addictions; people who are seriously ill, or are caring for a loved one who is ill.
But I don’t just work with people with problems. Lots of people work with counsellors because there is something they want to achieve, and something within them stopping them from doing it. From simply wanting the confidence to holiday alone to wanting to win the World Championships or build a business empire, I help people achieve their dreams.
Clients come to me privately or through referrals from Employee Assistance Programmes and Occupational Health Agencies, Insurance Companies, Employers, Solicitors and the Commissioning Services of the NHS. All receive the same high standards of professionalism, confidentiality and care.
People come to counsellors for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes people are in crisis, but not always. If you have any kind of problem or issue in your life with which you are struggling to cope, then counselling could help.
Often people find things difficult after a major event in their life, such as the loss of a loved one, an accident, a relationship breakdown or the loss of work. In these situations a counsellor can help the individual to deal with the issue and move on from it.
Counselling is an active mix of listening with curiosity and empathy, whilst asking enough questions to allow the client to really probe their inner world. We all want enough space to talk sometimes, but equally we don’t want to feel as though we are talking into a vacuum. The good counsellor will ensure that you feel connected to and actively heard whilst giving you the space to express things that you may have not had the courage or freedom to express before.
We all instinctively know that having someone supportive and compassionate to talk to will help us through a crisis. This is why so many people – from all walks of life and with a whole range of different problems – use therapy as a way of resolving personal issues and finding a successful path through life. Psychological therapies have a proven track record in helping us deal with a range of psychological issues
My training courses are designed to equip employees with the skills they need to survive and thrive in the workplace. And that means all employees. Everyone can benefit from understanding how to interact with others, how to be part of a successful team and to manage the relationships within that team, how to cope when someone or something makes them angry or how to manage the factors that could cause them to become stressed. People equipped with these skills are valuable assets to an employer, as they are motivated people who go through their working day with a positive attitude and can cope with pretty much everything the day might throw at them.
Hypnotherapy is a form of adjunctive technique that utilizes hypnosis to aid in the treatment of different specific symptoms or conditions. Hypnotherapy works by inducing a hypnotic state that is marked by a state of waking awareness in which people experience detached external attention and a focus on inner experiences.1 It is sometimes used as part of a treatment plan for phobias and other anxiety disorders.2 It is also sometimes used for pain management, weight loss, smoking cessation, and a variety of other applications.
When traumatic events happen, the body's natural coping mechanisms can be overwhelmed and subsequently, the memory isn't always processed adequately. EMDR therapy looks to help you properly process these traumatic memories, reducing their impact and helping you develop healthy coping mechanisms. This is done through an eight-phase approach to address the past, present, and future aspects of a stored memory. This involves recalling distressing events while receiving 'bilateral sensory input', including side to side eye movements, hand tapping and auditory tones.
Psychotherapy is generally a deeper and longer term engagement than the counselling relationship. We employ the same basic principles of active listening, empathy, curiosity and respect, but the purpose of psychotherapy is to facilitate transformation at a deeper level of the psyche.This requires us to hold a coherent psychological model of the self in order to work with the structure of the personality as well as here-and-now issues.
I am a qualified supervisor and I offer clinical supervision to counsellors and therapists of all modalities and professional external supervision to those who work in the caring professions. My experience as a social worker both in a local authority and a hospital setting allows me to work as an external supervisor with a level of informed knowledge about the caring professions.
I also offer training in community centres, colleges, universities, health promotion organisations and schools. Training is offered as workshops and short courses in self awareness, assertiveness, stress & anxiety management, effective communication and listening skills, and counselling skills. I offer a range of consultancy services to businesses large and small. From leadership skills workshops for managers and teams to advice on changing company culture, from learning to deal with stressed employees to working effectively in a team environment, business owners, directors and managers can reap significant benefits from working with a consultant such as myself.
Performance Coaching is a series of conversations or session in which the coachee is encouraged to set achievable goals on the way to larger goals, to develop their self awareness, to identify and overcome any obstacles, to plan and prepare. Performance Coaching is NOT giving advice or being the expert in the individual’s field. It is not counselling, although there may always be some small elements that are similar when dealing with the human being holistically, it isn’t fixing people, or doing their task for them. Performance coaching is not teaching, it is usually helping the coachee find their way to the best level of performance possible.
Ego-states refer to the three major parts of an individual's personality, and they each reflect an entire system of thought, feeling and behaviour. These ego-states are: Parent - Rooted in the past; a set of thoughts, feelings and behaviours learnt from our parents and other important people. This part of our personality can be supportive or critical. Adult - Rooted in the present; relates to direct responses in the 'here and now' that are not influenced by our past. This tends to be the most rational part of our personality. Child - Rooted in the past; a set of thoughts, feelings and behaviours learnt from our childhood. These can be free and natural or strongly adapted to parental influences.