In our busy multi-layered world of mass communication do you ever feel that no one is really interested in or listening to the real you or that there is no one with the time or the attention to spend time listening to the things that we are finding difficult or hurtful? Happiness and contentment are sometimes seen as an inalienable right for everyone, so why am I sometimes sad or afraid? A guy called Carl Rogers some years ago developed an understanding that we are born with the ability to lead happy and contented lives. But then of course life and other people come along and get in the way and we lose that innate ability of self-contentment and happiness. He also believed that we are able to develop an understanding of and coping strategies for dealing with the things that get in the way of our personal happiness and contentment. Counselling can provide the opportunity to explore what it is that is getting in the way of our feeling happy, safe and content with life. It can’t provide the answers to the challenges we may be experiencing but it can walk alongside us while we explore and find the answers that are the best fit for us as individuals. It doesn’t seek to judge us or to lecture us but rather to encourage us to explore what and how we need to be to get back to that basic human instinct that
