Inner Child Therapy Online | Counselling Southend-on-Sea, Essex | Counselling Nationwide
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Samantha Lee - Online Therapist | Inner Child Therapy Online | Counselling Nationwide
Welcome
During lockdown 5 years ago, I studied to become a certified online therapist and I now see all of my clients online via Zoom Meetings wherever they live in the UK.
As well as my career as a Counsellor and my CPD courses, I'm also the Author of “The Little Book of Help”. It's like therapy in a book of simple poems, without the waiting list!
All three of my Inner Child courses are now available to buy as a budget busting bundle deal saving 15% off the total price. Click here to see the Hat Trick Bundle details and to buy!
So how can I help you?
It's a bit of a minefield looking for a therapist isn't it? Here's some questions to help you decide if I'm the therapist for you.
Are you the kind of person who others might look at and think you've got it all? Great homelife, happy family, loving partner, good job, nice house, decent lifestyle?
Yet behind closed doors, is it a different story because you're struggling with long term hidden issues that you don't really talk about?
- Do you tell everyone you're "Fine", including yourself, when the truth is that actually, you're not really fine at all?
- Have you always had a difficult relationship with your parents and/or siblings?
- Do you feel like the black sheep of the family?
- Do you often feel unexplicably angry, sad or just numb?
- Do you find the relationship with your partner hard work?
- Do you find parenting overwhelming?
- Do you struggle with friendships? Often feel the outsider in your group?
- Do you spend too much time working? Find it hard / impossible to say No?
- Do you put everyone else's needs first and your own needs last?
- Finally, do you often feel out of your depth in adult life? Like all your friends seem to have it totally sorted compared to you?
I wonder if you ever look at your behaviour and think "why the hell do I keep doing that?" Yet, you just can't seem to stop doing "that" again, even though you know it's hurting you, and possibly the important people in your life?
And do you often feel overwhelmed by adult life, wishing another adult would come and take over?
Maybe you go above and beyond to help others but when it comes to helping yourself, you don't like to “burden” people with your own problems?
Well, I can guarantee that you are definitely not alone. Life doesn't have to be that way.
If you are a male client, you may like to also read my dedicated page Counselling for Men. I’ve worked with so many men throughout my career and I know how hard it is for them to ask for help. It usually takes years, and it’s usually only when they’re at breaking point. I get it.
Can my past affect my present?
My special interest lies in helping clients address the long-term effects of a difficult childhood. A lot of people say "But I had a happy childhood" yet often, when we start to look at the repeating relationship issues they have with family, partners, friends and even at work, these problems are often influenced by our past experiences.
Our past can affect our intimate relationships with partners, the relationship with our parents, how we parent, our effeciveness at work and the quality of our friendships.
I help people to explore difficult relationships with parents and siblings and the impact this can have over the years.
We don't always realise just how much our past is affecting our present until we sit and talk about it with someone completely neutral who isn't involved in our life.
Childhood Trauma
Photo Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash
A lot of people assure me their childhood was "normal" and that what they've lived through is "just how it was in our house" but childhood trauma can develop from repeated exposure to distressing and stressful experiences that were a regular feature at home or at school. For example...
- Did you watch your parents’ arguments and chaotic behaviour in an unhappy marriage ?
- Did you live with Domestic abuse toward another parent and/or you and siblings?
- Did you live with a parent with a mental illness or long term physical health issues?
- Were a young carer to a parent or sibling?
- Did your parents divorce?
- Did you live with a parents' addictive behaviours – i.e. drugs, alcohol, disordered eating, gambling etc?
- Did you experience the bereavement of a loved one that wasn’t spoken about?
- Were you brought up to follow a strict religious faith or cult?
- Were you sent to Boarding school?
- Were you bullied at school?
- Did you have to look after younger siblings when you were still a child?
- Did you feel responsible for making sure your parents were happy, safe?
When we are regularly exposed to these kind of experiences in our daily lives, it can shape our own beliefs and behaviours about ourselves and the world as we grow. It can affect how safe we feel as a child and how loved we are.
This is more keenly felt if we did not receive help to process, understand and manage upsetting experiences during childhood. We may have lacked verbal reassurance and physical comfort from our parents / primary carers and often left to manage our distress alone. If these things are lacking in our early years, they can continue to affect us as adults.
Many of you reading this won't consciously realise that your past is still playing out in your present but you may "feel" different from others in a number of ways.
You might find 'What is the Inner Child' an interesting read.
Samantha Lee - Online Therapist | OTI Certified | Counselling Essex | Counselling Southend-on-Sea
Counselling Southend-on-Sea | Online Counselling Nationwide
You don't have to cope alone - Counsellor, Southend-on-Sea | Online Therapy throughout the UK
So many people have issues that family, loved ones and work colleagues can often know nothing about.
So many people hide their worries and fears because they don't want to "burden" people, they don't want to "upset" anyone and they don't want to be judged, especially if they feel they are repeating the same mistakes in life over and over again.
If this is you, perhaps you need more convincing...
- Do you suspect that events from your childhood may still be affecting you?
- Are you having real problems in your relationship? Again?
- Does your relationship with your parents frequently leave you frequently feeling unheard, unseen, unloved? Angry? Despairing?
- Do you often feel helpless and overwhelmed?
- Do you overthink and worrry about everything?
- Do you feel inadequate and compare yourself to others?
- Do you experience anxiety/panic attacks that can affect everyday life?
- Do you feel depressed, numb, flat but you don't really know why?
If any of this sounds familiar and you’re exhausted from putting on a brave face all the time, then I can help you. You can email me by scrolling to the bottom of any page of this website.
Counselling Southend-on-Sea | Online Therapy throughout the UK for Childhood Trauma, Relationship Issues, Stress, Anxiety, Low Confidence, Depression and more
How can Counselling help you?
In my sessions, you'll get the chance to drop the brave face, stop pretending everything's okay and just feel the relief of telling me what it's really like to be you.
It can be a huge release to talk to somebody neutral about the things you struggle with. Not having to worry about upsetting them or being judged allows total honesty - honesty is the thing that can change everything.
When you can be truly honest about the things you struggle with in certain areas of life, you eventually gain clarity and understanding about WHY you have struggled.
This insight eventually gives you the confidence to make gradual changes that can have a huge impact... What kind of changes?
Finally understanding WHY you have held on to certain unhelpful views and behaviours from the past allows you to change how you view yourself and others.
It will change how you treat yourself and others.
It will give you new insight about your life experiences and relationships and the confidence to do things differently.
Together, we will get you back to a place where you feel like your old self and where life feels manageable again.
Online Therapy Nationwide - Counselling Southend-on-Sea
I may be based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex and yet from Rochford to Rochester and Southend to Land's End, online therapy allows me to work with clients throughout the UK.
I am a reputable and qualified Online Therapist, trained to work ethically online by OTI, the Online Therapy Institute. I am a Registered BACP Counsellor and before becoming an online therapist, I saw my clients on a 1-2-1 basis and also enjoyed facilitating group therapy around anger, addiction and domestic abuse.
Online Therapist Nationwide - Counselling Southend-on-Sea, Essex
So if you are wondering whether therapy is for you, you can email me for a free telephone assessment:by clicking the email tab on any page of the website.
You can also contact me via Messenger on my Facebook Page
Visit my Facebook Page for daily posts that will make you think, laugh or resonate with the content. I also post my poetry about life and often post some beautiful photographs of the nature and scenery in Southend-on-Sea and around Essex from when I go out walking.
Be Less Stressed this year
Don't take my word for it - here some testimonials from past clients. You can find them at the bottom of every page.
After the first few sessions I knew Sam was the right choice , her understanding of your situation and the ability to make you unravel it all in your head is amazing . The coping mechanisms that you will learn can only help you go forward with your life. There are times when it is hard and you have to face up to some stuff that is really hard. Yes I have been in tears, I'll admit it, but what you get through the other side - it is an amazing feeling to have your Mojo back.
I have just finished with Sam after 18 months its time to crack on with life again. I cant thank her enough and I know she is there if I ever need her again " Paul, 53, Rochford
"Sam has been a fantastic help this year. I had experienced several different traumatic events that had built up on top of each other. I always felt that I was 'coping' but realised that my way of coping was just actually pushing things down and carrying on. Sam has helped me to identify underlying issues, work through them at my own pace and help me feel empowered to tackle them. Not only that but she has made me feel more confident about dealing with things that might happen in the future. Sam has a fantastically empathetic approach and has made me feel really validated. I am very grateful and would wholeheartedly recommend her." Helen, 40, Upminster
“I met Sam last year when I was at rock bottom and in a little over a year, she helped me to cope with it all and then how to understand it and move on from it. From the very first session, I felt totally at ease to open up and let it all out. It was easy to trust Sam and discuss things I had never spoken to anyone about or even understood myself. I would recommend Sam 100% to anyone who needs help dealing with tough feelings or situations, past or present, and I cannot thank her enough for helping me overcome those feelings and understand how I can see good in the world and myself again.” Toby, 30, Southend-on-Sea
