Toni Jackson
Counselling & Psychotherapy for the Misunderstood
How Weekly Counselling Sessions can make a Difference to your Therapy
If you are considering counselling or psychotherapy, or you’re already seeing a therapist, you may have wondered how often you really need to go.
This is a question most new clients ask me.
The answer is weekly is usually best.
Due to financial considerations, I do have clients who see me fortnightly, however, there are distinct differences in the amount of therapeutic progress made and in how easily we reach the roots of their pain.
Soul-centred Psychotherapist, Counsellor & Eating Disorder Specialist, Jodie Gale, interviewed counsellors and psychotherapists from around the world, to get their views on weekly sessions.
Some of the reasons weekly counselling works so well are:
• Weekly sessions help to build and maintain the ever-important relationship between client and therapist – a factor well-known to be the most significant in terms of therapy effectiveness.
• Weekly means half the session isn’t being used for ‘catch up’ each time.
• There is a sense of being held and cared for – a feeling of safety – which then leads to ‘diving deep’ and unearthing the root causes of pain, in a gentle and supported way. Read More
Resources for Living with an Imperfect Body
I looked up the definition of perfect in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
It said:
“Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.”
This left me thinking, ‘whose desire? As good as it is possible to be for what? Who decides this?’
Perfect is such an incredibly arbitrary and absurd concept. Related to your body, it makes no sense.
It also means that not one, single one of us is perfect. Thank goodness for that!
Bodies can be saggy, bony, have cellulite, use a wheelchair, be large, small, chronically ill, toned, hairy, wobbly, fatigued, freckly, rashy, patchy, pale, dark, red, tall, short, fat, pain-ridden, of various sexes, genders and sexualities, big-boobed, no boobed, stiff, flexible, angular, soft, young, old, and on and on.
In addition, you are so much more than your body.
Your body is one fraction of many, varied aspects that make up who you are.
You can also define yourself by aspects such as what you love doing, what you’re interested in, what you’re good at, your beliefs, your goals and your cultural and social identities. Read More
The Speech that had 450 Eating Disorders Practitioners in Tears [Video]
“Dear Eating Disorders community. It’s hard to feel like you belong in a world that so often criticises, stigmatises and dehumanises you solely because you live in a fat body. Harder still, it’s difficult if you have a lived experience of an eating disorder and you live in a fat body, because there is seemingly no room for you in this narrative.” – Nicole McDermid
I recently attended the Australia & New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders (ANZAED) conference in Melbourne. I arrived a day late and was greeted by a buzz of excitement, energy and connection. It appeared that I had missed a profound moment in the history of Eating Disorders treatment in this country.
The previous day’s plenary, ‘Weight Stigma & Eating Disorders’, presented by Sarah Harry, Scott Griffiths and Nicole McDermid, had rocked the conference to its core.
Social Worker, Counsellor and Eating Disorders Coach Nicole McDermid, has shared that after finishing her speech, she looked up to a tear-ridden standing ovation of over 450 Eating Disorders practitioners.
It was a game-changing speech for an Eating Disorders community who still has fatphobia embedded in its core. Read More
Toni Jackson 