Sian Macdonald - Choices Counselling

My Findhorn office has had a makeover. If you fancy a counselling session or supervision please get in contact. Appointments available in Findhorn and Elgin 🙂

I am away from the office this week. Please leave a message or text and I'll get back to you on Monday 6th May.

My wee counselling room in Elgin has had a makeover. If you need a safe space to chat please give me a call or text on 07734396238

My wee room in Elgin has had a revamp. If you fancy a chat and a chance to offload in comfy surroundings give me a call or text on 07734396238.

Happy International Women's Day

Happy Christmas may your day be filled with peace and joy. 🎄

Thank you to all my clients for putting their trust in me and allowing me to hear their story. Have a great Christmas and a happy 2024

The Holistic Psychologist

Embodied Processing Pre-Training Registration Whether you're working with clients now or are on a journey of healing (or both), there often feels like a 'missing piece of the puzzle'

Away for a few days so the office is closed until Tuesday 23rd May. Please email or leave a message if you want to make an appointment and I'll get back to you on my return. ❤️

Happy May 1st breathe and enjoy the moment

You might think you're in control of unwanted emotions when you ignore them, but they control you.

Internal pain always comes out—always. The best way to cope with amplification is to sit with your emotions. Giving yourself a small moment of reflection to process a tough emotion can improve your relationships and your day to day experience as a whole. Try to really see yourself in that moment.

Ask, how can I best support myself in this moment? What do I need? The answers to these questions could be as simple as taking a few deep breaths, placing your hands over your heart or belly, going for a short walk, or making a cup of tea.

Procrastination is NOT 'Laziness' Is procrastination affecting your life?

A snowy Findhorn Bay this morning. If you fancy a walk and talk session you can experience the beauty of nature at the same time.

Happy new year to all my clients past and present. I hope 2023 is a good year for you all.

Happy Christmas to all my friends and clients. I hope you have a relaxing and peaceful time

What is Depression?

Depression can be experienced in many ways, including as emotional numbness, lack of focus, lethargy, grief, despair, loss of soul and energy, a feeling of heaviness, spiritual emptiness, post-natal sadness, or a ‘dark night of the soul’.

As literally 'a lowering', depression occurs when energy which is normally available to conscious, day-to-day living, becomes depleted, blocked, pulled down, or trapped in the depths of the unconscious.

Depression can arise through endless combinations of psychospiritual and physical causes, but in many cases, its primary source is an unresolved, repressed, or forgotten grief, trauma, crisis, conflict, or loss. In addition, depression is often an emotional, relational and/or spiritual response to a sense of meaninglessness, lack of harmony with Nature, or lack of truthfulness with oneself and others (i.e. ‘living a lie’).

Poor diet, chronic pain, social isolation, seasonal changes, distressing world events, lack of sunshine and lack of exercise can contribute to depression, as can soulless environments, damaging relationships, dull routine, empty forms of work and apparent lack of life purpose.

~ Maureen B. Roberts, PhD www.psychiatrywithsoul.com
Sculpture by Albert Gyorgy

I am not getting everyone's enquiries via my website. Apologies. Looking to sort as quickly as possible.

Lest we forget .....

More often than we realise, charities and organisations offering counselling services across the UK are often propped up by volunteer counsellors.

And quite often, almost every other staff member is paid a decent wage. Everyone except the actual counsellors delivering the counselling services.

This is common practice.

And people get away with this for several reasons.

Firstly, they play on counsellors good nature. “But you’d work for free if you really cared”, “but you’re a nice person”. Well, even nice caring people need to eat and pay their bills!

2. Accreditation. In the UK, most counsellors need 450 hours to apply for accreditation. Organisations who ask for qualified unpaid staff will use the following text “Volunteers needed. Gain hours needed for accreditation”. But, we’re already qualified. Accreditation is just a voluntary add-on!

3. It’s become a given/acceptable model embedded in counselling services across the country. But it’s often wrong. It’s often exploitative. It’s often unethical, and it can be harmful.

Furthermore, if you operate a business that can only survive by using unpaid staff then you simply don’t have a sustainable business model - you need to change what you are doing.

And if services close because counsellors refuse to work unpaid then it is never the fault of the counsellor, not ever. It is the fault of government for increasing public cuts and the underfunding of vital mental health services.

Research shows that the majority of counsellors would like to be paid, and those who aren’t often report feeling the least happy in their work. (See BACP member’s employment survey 2014).

The more I think about this the more furious I feel. And talking about this is often akin to shouting into an abyss…. because people don’t listen. They don’t want to. Because everyone makes money except counsellors. And so it is in a lot of people’s best interests to maintain this exploitative practice.

But at CTUK we won’t stop shouting. We’ll post every single day! And we’ll campaign like never before.

Because ALL therapists deserve to be paid. And to be paid a decent wage at that!

Maria ❤️✊🏼



* You can read the full poster transcript here: https://ukcounsellors.co.uk/cycle-of-counsellor-exploitation/

I am now offering clinical supervision as well as counselling for couples individuals and young people. Please get in touch on 07734396238 or email [email protected]

"Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilisation take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again."

C.G. Jung