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Stories

Not testimonials. A texture of the work.

Real clients are not quoted here. These composites are written so you can sense the temperature of the room without anyone’s privacy being borrowed for marketing.

How the work is sometimes described. Written for this theme. They are not quotations from clients, and no outcome is promised.

Three sample stories

The week it stopped being a performance

I kept arriving with an update, as if the session were a meeting. Somewhere in the third month I ran out of the update. What was left was quieter, and more useful. I still do not have a tidy ending. I have a little more room.

Sample story Written for this theme — not a client testimonial, and not a promised result

Grief that did not look like grief

I thought I was there about work. It took a while to say that my father had died the previous year and I had been extremely efficient about it. Saying that out loud did not fix the efficiency. It did stop me being quite so alone with it.

Sample story Written for this theme — not a client testimonial, and not a promised result

Two of us, and a third chair

We were polite in a way that was hurting us. Having someone else in the room, who was not on either side, let us hear the sentences we had been sanding down at home. We did not become a different couple. We became more accurate.

Sample story Written for this theme — not a client testimonial, and not a promised result

Three mismatched chairs and a potted plant against a corrugated wall in warm light
Illustrative photo, Wikimedia Commons

What these notes are not

No schedule, no guarantee.

They are not evidence that you will feel better on a schedule. They are not reviews. If you need a guarantee, counselling cannot honestly offer one. What it can offer is a regular, attentive hour, and a person who will stay interested.

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