Steve Cox Counselling The main aim of my practice is to allow people to be and become themselves, to enhance their self-acceptance and awareness and harmonise the relationship between themselves and the world. By engaging in a process where empathy, understanding, valuing and authenticity are experienced at high levels, positive transformation tends to take place. Ordinarily this sort of interactivity is rare in people’s lives, yet when a client and skilled therapist work together with focussed attention, life-changing possibilities emerge. My job is to facilitate your ability to function more fully, to listen and communicate as deeply as possible; paying attention to the whole person and thus promote a relationship whereby you can explore and discover your own growth. Most people come to counselling/psychotherapy for help when there is pain and confusion in their life, to embark on this form of self-help takes courage. The terms ‘counselling and psychotherapy’ are interchangeable – I work with the same high degree of attentive focus and presence, regardless of what name I give to therapy.The process of therapy is not simply a matter of therapist-offered conditions, but one of connection – the client with the therapist creates the therapy interactively and each bring their worlds with them. Professional Experience I have been a counsellor/psychotherapist since 1994 and I have a wide of range of experience that includes: Mental health organisations in Hampshire and the surrounding area: The Priory, Mind, Rethink (the former National Schizophrenia Fellowship), and Parklands Psychiatric Hospital. I was also the Chair of the Southampton Mental Health Forum for six years Further and Higher Education institutions: Southampton City College & the University of Southampton Alcohol and Drugs Agencies: Options and Turning-Point General Practice: private practitioner Working with death and bereavement: St. Michael’s Hospice, North Hampshire Hospice. My roles as a therapeutic practitioner have been; counsellor/psychotherapist, supervisor, consultant, facilitator, trainer, manager and academic. I have also worked as a private practitioner since 1999 counselling, supervising and facilitating therapeutic groups and educational groups, workshops and seminars. As well as my own private practise, I was the therapy team leader of the adult psychiatry department at Southampton Priory. Before this I was the lead psychotherapeutic practitioner and Manager for St. Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire) Bereavement Services. My Qualifications: Advanced Diploma Counselling, Diploma Psychotherapy, Diploma Counselling Supervision, Diploma Case Work Supervision, Master of Science Degree in Person-Centred Psychotherapy & Wider Applications. Specialisms: Individual counselling, Relational counselling (couples and groups), Bereavement, Drugs and Alcohol, 'Mental health' issues i.e. depression, anxiety, trauma etc... Workshops: Working with Bereavement Death and Dying. Encountering Suicide Exploring counselling within a medicalised mental health society. Four vistas of Therapy Men’s Issues Relational connection Supervision Counsellors and professionals who engage in emotionally challenging relational work have particular developmental requirements. Organisations that run services or teach counselling or helping professions have a particular responsibility in this area. Find out more about the wider applications of development activities by viewing ‘Services Offered’ All the developmental activities listed in ‘services offered’ share a common practice philosophy and are all intended to maximise human potential.

I am a qualified and experienced psychoanalytic psychotherapist, using the insights of modern relational psychodynamic psychotherapy and interpersonal neurobiology. I am experienced in working with people with mental health problems, substance dependencies, and life crises. I have worked with people from all walks of life, ethnicities and backgrounds, from senior civil servants to rough sleepers. I also work with work-related issues, including development and leadership; I have experience as a director of a multi-million pound not-for-profit organisation. My practice is based on the concepts of the importance of relationships, and on self-development, recovery, and discovery - finding out what is really going on for you, and what resources you have to work your way through it. Therapy can be challenging, but it is rewarding, and lasts long after the therapy itself ends. It is about helping you find your own vision to light up the rest of your life.