The Support I Offer
The areas in which I specialise include:
Grief, Loss & Bereavement
Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical & spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.
Balloons Charity
In addition to my work at Elephant Counselling, I have enjoyed a close working relationship with the wonderful Exeter based charity Balloons. Although I no longer hold the position of Grief Support Worker my admiration for the incredibly important work that they do continues.
Balloons provides support for children, young people and their families before an expected death of someone significant in their lives. Please feel free to follow the link to learn about the excellent work that Balloons do.
Depression
I wanted to talk about it. Damn it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell. I wanted to shout about it, but all I could do was whisper, “I’m fine”.
Anxiety & Stress
- Life
- Sports Performance
- Education
- Workplace
I am very strong, but sometimes while I’m being strong, I’m also hyperventilating and my heart is pounding out of my chest. Also, I might cry and swear a lot. That’s just how I roll.
Family Conflict Parent/Child
"Get out of my life.... but first take me into town."
Couples Relationship Therapy
There are three sides to every story… one of them is the truth.
What my clients say…
"Hi Matt, I just wanted to let you know what a changed child that I have got since this time last year when we started to see you. He has got off to a really good start at high school, is enjoying the variety and challenges and coping with it OK so far. His tutor is changing on a daily basis due to the assigned tutor being off sick and he is coping with it well.
I truly believe he wouldn’t be on this trajectory without your input. At the moment he gets off to sleep well every night and there are no signs of the anxiety, tearfulness and low feelings he was having last year.
Coming to see you for a while made a fundamental change to how he manages himself and to his outlook."
EN (Mum)
Matt… your work is priceless!!
L and I met with Mrs J this morning. L names all the things that got him ‘out of the green’ once he arrived in the classroom: the noise, the business, the pain he feels when he is holding a pencil. He was able to offer ideas of what would help him. He was able at 9 years old to support himself and verbalise his needs and what he finds a struggle. He was also able to understand that these things may not ‘fix’ what he struggles with but that they can be tried and revisited if needs be… Priceless.
You are an inspiration.
LB (MUM)
"Matt, thank you for everything you have done for me.
Thank you for absolutely changing my life.
Thank you for saving my life."
I know you are supposed to keep everything we talk about confidential, but I absolutely give you my permission to use anything we have spoken about if you see it in any way possible that it could help someone else.
When we first started talking, I was a broken man and on a downward spiral into a pit of suicidal depression. With a lot of hard work and a lot of patience you have slowly turned me around, more than I ever thought was possible. From just a blank ‘meh’ and only having a range of red or green, to a scale of meh’s and a rainbow of colours to show my mood, to remembering what a bit of happiness feels like and finally allowing me to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
At the start, just a single trip on my own or eating in a restaurant alone seemed like an impossible task. But slowly building the confidence I was able to achieve both of those. Now, ironically I almost prefer doing these things alone! Not thinking that I would ever do that, but now absolutely loving it.
From all of the small trips away and the weekends or days out on my own has all been building up to this absolutely massive life changing trip I am about to embark on. Thank you for building that in me.
MJ