NAVIGATING CHALLENGE AND CHANGE
Compassionate counselling that is tailored to your needs, supporting you through your unique life journey with understanding and care.
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.
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—  Fritz Perls, "Gestalt Therapy Verbatim", 1969
Welcome to Karen Weston Counselling. I am devoted to providing empathetic listening and support to those navigating the complexities of life. My mission is to support you in discovering new perspectives and pathways.​
My Approach​
As a BACP registered Gestalt Counsellor, I take a creative approach, encouraging clients to explore their present-day experiences with curiosity, not judgement. This may reveal feelings from past experiences that have been buried for a long time. I will support you as you recognise what aspects of yourself you pay attention to and appreciate, which you may dismiss and those of which you may be unaware of and what you may have to discover. I offer a safe space to experiment with new possibilities and experiences.
What is Gestalt?
The Gestalt therapeutic framework is a holistic approach that underpins the therapeutic relationship. It aims to create greater awareness of how our behaviours and thought patterns may not serve us in the present day or may require situational nuance.
With no direct English translation, from a counselling perspective, the German word "Gestalt" represents "a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts". As people, how our different parts interact to create our larger, complex, unique self and how they interact with others shapes us as a relational being. Much is learned about self through the therapeutic relationship.
Key values
As individuals, we are all impacted by our own unique set of circumstances as well as the circumstances presented by the world we live in, neither of which remain static and are often laden with norms and expectations. Working professionally with you, I will do my best to ensure I learn about those aspects that impact your well-being and equally, I will do my best not to assume I can fully understand your specific experience without hearing it from you.
With this in mind, I actively encourage and respect your autonomy for deciding the goals of your counselling. On occasion, this can mean that the issues you want to work on may be more suited for a different professional and in these circumstances, I will signpost you towards a practitioner or service that is a better fit.​ My work is regulated by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and I am in regular supervision.
Meeting your needs
It can be scary and confusing making the decision to contact a therapist and I recognise the courage to take the first step. From my own experience, of upmost important is having your voice heard and understood, allowing you to express what is necessary for you to do so. With me, clients often explore their unique experiences of common mental health issues and life experiences, such as depression, anxiety, grief, change, stress and relationship issues, whether romantic, familial or friendships, together with the underlying trauma that may be held in the body that can often underlies these challenges.
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Having supported numerous clients in bereavement, I understand that every life change and decision involves endings and beginnings as well a compromise between chosen and lost opportunities and sometimes, no choice is made for what comes next. Change and acceptance are difficult and the associated grief is not always recognise. I can help support you as you navigate (peri-)menopause, childlessness by circumstance, not choice, career change and changes in family dynamics and roles.
Services Offered
I offer both in-person and online sessions during the day and online sessions only in the evenings. I am based in SW London and offer both long-term and short-term work. My fees are £60 per session. I only offer weekly therapy for new clients as through experience, I do not believe fortnightly to be effective in it's support. ​If we agree to work together, I will offer you the same time slot each week.
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I offer a free 15min curiosity call to give you the opportunity to ask questions about my approach to therapy and to understand pricing, terms and conditions, I also offer a 50mins paid for assessment session, a one-off session where we discuss the reasons you are seeking therapy and whether we are a good fit. I do not accept clients without undertaking an assessment session as I consider it a crucial first step for us both.
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Services
Mutual Assessment session to ascertain therapeutic needs and counsellor/client compatibility
50 min
60 British pounds
15 min