David Haacke MBACP
Accredited Counsellor & Psychotherapist
Counselling for Central London and The City

Families - a place to belong or a place to escape from?

Like it or not you will have probably grown up in one and it will have influenced how you see the world today.

How you experienced yourself in your family when you were growing up can have enduring implications on your adult relationships with partners, friends, work and society and you can find yourself repeating that same old familiar feeling later in life.

Did you feel safe & secure at home or was it an anxious place from which you escaped at every opportunity?

Did you shine amongst your siblings or were you forever in their shadow?

Were you an only child longing for brothers and sisters or one of many fighting for recognition?

Was home a stimulating & creative place, a joy to be in or a dull, boring one leaving you looking outside for fun and excitement?

Did you feel burdened by family responsibilites or that what you did simply didn't matter?

Did you feel excluded - that you didn't belong - or smothered and special?

Were you a revolting teenager? Still revolting?

Did you run away from it all and still can't find "home"?
And how do you remember authority? Never there? There when it suited them? Always there! Were you encouraged or was nothing ever good enough. Was authority arrogant, unbending and over sure of itself leaving you unsure of yourself and perhaps, now, unbending too?

Counselling can help to explore these thoughts & feelings, making some sense of how things were for you when growing up, helping to recognise and understand learned behaviour patterns and providing more choice later in life.