Integrative Counselling

Integrative Counselling in Buckhurst Hill with Sinéad Lyons brings different types of therapy together, so our sessions can fit you rather than a fixed method.

I offer integrative counselling for adults dealing with anxiety, stress, burnout, redundancy, career change and big changes in midlife.

You may feel overwhelmed. You may have lost your sense of direction. Or you may know something is wrong without knowing what. We can start there.

What is integrative counselling?

You may come to counselling with more than one thing on your mind.

You might feel anxious about work. Tired at home. Unsure about your relationship. You may have lost confidence or direction.

Perhaps life looks fine from the outside, yet does not feel fine from where you are sitting.

Integrative counselling lets me draw on different therapeutic approaches based on what you need. My work includes CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, psychodynamic ideas, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and somatic-informed work.

We can look at:

• How the way you think and feel shapes what you do
• Patterns which keep pulling you back to the same place
• Earlier experiences which may still shape your reactions
• What matters to you now, not ten years ago
• Practical tools which can help you cope and move forward
• How stress and emotion may be showing up in your body

You are not being fitted into a therapy model. We shape the approach around you.

Understanding the past and moving forward

Understanding how you got here matters. But you probably want more than an explanation. You want something to change.

We can explore how you reached this point and the patterns which are keeping you stuck.

When you are ready to look ahead, my coaching experience can also help you work out what you want next and how to move towards it.

Integrative counselling can help you:

• Clear some of the noise in your head
• Understand why certain patterns keep returning
• Look at your situation from a different angle
• Work out what matters to you now
• Find practical ways to make changes
• Feel able to make your own choices again

Think of counselling like getting a new pair of glasses.

When things become clearer, you start to understand what has been keeping you stuck and see a way forward.

What can integrative counselling help with?

You do not need one huge crisis before asking for help.

Sometimes life shifts beneath you. Or nothing dramatic has happened. You don’t feel like yourself anymore.

Your job has gone. Your children have left home. Retirement has arrived. A relationship has changed. Menopause or perimenopause may be affecting how you feel.

My work in Buckhurst Hill includes support with:

• Anxiety when worry is taking over, or your mind will not switch off
• Burnout & stress when you feel drained, overwhelmed or unable to keep carrying the same load
• Redundancy & career change when losing a job has also shaken your confidence, routine or identity
• Midlife counselling for men when work, retirement, relationships or ageing leave you asking, “What now?”
• Midlife counselling for women around changing roles, empty nest, menopause, perimenopause and identity
• Coaching & New Direction when you know something needs to change but cannot see the next move
• And more you may simply feel stuck, lost, low or unlike yourself, without being able to point to one clear reason why

Different problems can overlap. Anxiety may be tied to work. Burnout can leave you questioning your career. Redundancy can leave you questioning who you are without your job.

Integrative counselling gives us room to work with the whole picture.

When you don’t feel like yourself anymore

One sentence often comes up in different forms:

“I used to cope. What happened to me?”

Maybe your last child has left home. The house feels different. A role which shaped years of your life has changed.

At the same time, perimenopause or menopause may be bringing anxiety, brain fog or mood changes.

Or perhaps you spent decades building a career. Then redundancy arrived.

Suddenly, Monday morning comes with no job to go to, no routine and no clear sense of what comes next.

Your circumstances may be different, but you may find yourself asking the same questions:

• Who am I now?
• Why am I struggling with this?
• What do I want next?
• Why can’t I just get on with things?
• How do I find some direction again?

If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’re not alone.

You do not need to have the answers before coming to counselling. Finding them is part of the work.

What will counselling with me feel like?

You may worry counselling means talking while somebody sits opposite you and nods.

That is not how I work. I want you to feel heard. I also want our conversations to help you think.

My approach is warm, calm and grounded. There is no judgement.

I may also gently challenge you when I notice something that could help you see your situation differently.

Our sessions can give you:

• Space to say what you have not been saying elsewhere
• A chance to slow down and understand what is happening
• Another perspective when you feel trapped in your own thoughts
• Honest reflection rather than automatic agreement
• Useful tools and techniques to take into everyday life
• A clearer idea of what you want next

You don’t need to have the right words.

You may not know exactly what is wrong or where to start. That’s okay. We can start with what you are experiencing now and work from there.

Why I offer integrative counselling in Buckhurst Hill

Before becoming a counsellor, I spent 28 years working in healthcare.

Those years taught me the importance of trust, safety, confidentiality and helping someone feel at ease. I also worked for a mental health charity before training as a counsellor and coach.

My professional training includes:

• Level 7 PGDip in Integrative Counselling & Coaching
• PGCert in Counselling and Intercultural Counselling
• Diploma in Life Coaching
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training
• Solution-Focused Brief Therapy training
• Anxiety management training
• CBT training with the British Menopause Society
• Somatic-informed and mind-body work

I am also an MBACP counsellor and an affiliate subscriber of the British Menopause Society.

My own experience of changing direction in midlife has shaped my work too.

I know from my own experience how uncertain changing direction can feel, and how difficult it can be to work out what you actually want.

Having the right support helped me find my way forward, and I now bring that understanding to my work with you.

Is integrative counselling right for you?

You may have spent months trying to reason your way through the problem.

You may have spoken to friends. Read books. Searched online. Asked AI and told yourself to get on with it. Yet you are still stuck.

Counselling is worth exploring if you:

• Feel overwhelmed by normal life
• Have lost motivation or purpose
• Keep worrying about everything
• Feel stuck between an old life and whatever comes next
• Are struggling after redundancy, retirement or career change
• Are finding midlife harder than expected
• Want practical help as well as a deeper understanding of yourself
• And more, you do not need to see your exact situation listed here. If something is affecting how you feel or leaving you stuck, we can start by talking about what is going on for you

You do not need to commit to years of therapy. Some issues only need a handful of sessions. Others need more.

The aim is not to make you dependent on counselling. The aim is to help you reach a point where you no longer need me.

Integrative counselling in Buckhurst Hill

I offer face-to-face integrative counselling in Buckhurst Hill from Monday to Friday, between 8 am and 5 pm.

Sessions last 50 minutes and cost £60. A limited number of concessionary spaces are available.

Starting counselling does not mean you cannot cope. Sometimes life changes, what worked before stops working, and you find yourself unsure of what to do next.

You do not need to have the answers before you come. We can start by making sense of where you are, clearing away some of the noise and helping you see what matters to you now.

You may not know where you want to go yet. Together, we can find your direction again.