Rate Heli Annika Giles

My name is Annika, and I am qualified integrative therapeutic counsellor mainly using a person-centred approach. I am a registered member of British association for counselling and psychotherapy (MBACP).

I am glad you are here, and I wish I could tell you that although making the first contact might feel like a big step, there is nothing to worry or feel shame about talking to a counsellor. I am here to support you as I still remember how it felt for me.

You might be wondering if counselling can support you whatever challenging period in life you are going through at the moment.  Maybe it is the worry and fear about cost-of-living crisis, university or college studies, feeling anxious, work stress, relationship issues or just not feeling "right".

Maybe it’s something that has happened recently or something which you have been thinking for a while.

These are some of the issues which are close to my own personal and work experiences, and where I feel counselling can really support:

Anxiety (general, social anxiety)

Relationship issues

Low self-esteem/self-confidence - perfectionism

Feeling rootless, not fitting in /belonging - feeling not good enough

Stress/burnout including career coaching and work-related issues

Trauma and traumatic experiences

 I truly believe and have experienced myself too that every one of us has capacity with right support to find a way to feel better again. Counselling is not about fixing you or finding what is wrong with you, more like understanding, finding clarify and helping you to work through complex, difficult emotions. Sometimes it is about understanding why nothing feels good or what do you really feel. Maybe for you it’s about finding real you. 

You choose what you want to talk about and what you would like to achieve by having counselling sessions. My role is to support you with this, and we will review the progress together.  

Counselling can help you to challenge negative thinking patterns and give you new tools to cope with difficult situations. 

The cost-of-living crisis we are currently experiencing will not only add to the stress but might leave you feeling shame, fear, frustration even lonely. You are not alone with these feelings. Talking about what is troubling can ease some of the burden you might be feeling.

How counselling can help you?

Counselling might not take away all your anxiety (general, social or anything else) but through greater self-awareness and acceptance, it helps you to understand and anticipate your everyday triggers.  When you understand your anxiety better and where it originates from, it supports you to cope with it better too.  You can start feeling yourself again and anxiety is not overtaking your day-to-day life. 

Anxiety but also other life events and experiences such as bullying, relationship issues, work related issues can lead to low self-esteem, feeling sad, lack of self-confidence, and feelings of being not good enough. 

When you come to understand why you feel the way you do, it helps you to cope better with different situations. You can start feeling more positive about yourself which further builds up your self-esteem.

Counselling can help you to understand what is going on with your relationship/relationships (partner, parents, friends, colleagues).  It gives you better self- awareness, helps you to understand your own behavior, supports you be more present and comfortable with different relationships.

This includes having clear, healthy boundaries, but also to learn why it can be difficult to leave the relationship. Clients have noticed how past relationships e.g., with parents or partners are affecting their current relationships and have found better ways of coping.  

You can have relationships counselling for yourself or then as a couple.

Men and therapy/counselling: I feel that it is important to normalize therapy for men too. Men are expected to cope with it all and asking for help can feel shameful. My own background in traditionally male orientated industry, together with additional counselling training for counselling men, helps me to offer counselling which my male clients have found approachable. 

Ultimately there is no difference in how counselling works for both men and women.  It can be that couple sessions can be enough to support you to talk about any troubling issues better with your partner, family and friends.

Based on my own experiences in business environment, I am passionate to offer stress and burnout management as part of counselling. Stress is not necessarily only about work but can relate to your personal life or to be a combination of both. Lack of time is commonly discussed. Clients who have suffered stress related symptoms have found that talking about their situation openly has helped to find clarity and some practical coping tools.  A successful career does not have to be a stressful career too.

Trauma and traumatic experiences can be something you have kept as a "secret" for too long or they are still affecting your life one way or another. Counselling can support you to talk about your experiences without judgement and confidentiality.  

 We are all unique in how we grief, and grief is not something which you need to get over with. Counselling gives a space to talk about your bereavement and loss at your own time with someone who does not judge. Bereavement and loss can be about a loved one, a pet, divorce, friendship, a job or anything else in your life. 

Loss can be related to your health as well, including menopause. It can be really hard coping with a chronic illness, e.g., chronic fatigue or how menopause is affecting you.

Counselling enables you to share your experiences, how challenging it is to cope with constant pain and how maybe your daily life, hopes and dreams have had to change. It can help you to discuss with your loved ones how you might feel like a "burden" or need to show "brave face" even when it does not like it.

Counselling may not take all your issues away, but it can give you ways of coping with them a lot better. It can allow you to move forward again with your life. 

I am originally from Finland and my multicultural background means that I know how it can feel to be different, even rootless or not knowing for sure where you belong.