About Rivington Therapy

Hello, my name is Sulin Ratcliffe. I am a fully qualified Counsellor and Psychotherapist. I have extensive experience in Person-Centred therapy and also integrate other disciplines into my client work.

I provide individual, couple, and group counselling sessions.

I conduct counselling in the Chorley, Horwich, Preston, Leyland and surrounding areas of lancashire, however I also have access to premises in Manchester City Centre and am willing to travel to client’s own homes or their location of choice.

I also offer telephone counselling for those people who prefer to conduct their sessions over the phone. In addition, I can provide on-line counselling for those clients who prefer to conduct their sessions over the internet.

My training, work experience and any achievement

I am a fully qualified and experienced Counsellor and Psychotherapist. I have extensive training and work experience in a number of areas (shown below). I have attended a number of courses including LGBT issues, Depression, Anger Management, Bereavement and PTSD.

What is therapy?
Therapy (Counselling/Psychotherapy) is a formal and professional relationship whereby a qualified practitioner works with their client to explore the difficult and often painful issues or experiences that are causing them difficulty in their life. Examples may include, depression, bereavement, abuse, stress, sexual identity, addiction. This list is not exhaustive and people seek therapy for many and varied reasons.

A Psychotherapist/Counsellor works with people who have emotional, behavioural, psychological or mental difficulties. During therapy the therapist helps the client to talk about and explore their thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs and issues and relevant events whether they be past or present and work on their future. The process enables the client to gain increased self awareness and helps the person to gain a better understanding of their difficulties and assist their capacity for making choices and appropriate alterations to their personal behaviour and thinking.

There is no time limit on therapy and it simply takes as long as it takes. Some issues can be dealt with in a few sessions such as where there is an immediate presenting issue and sometimes the work with a client can be more long term where there are more complex crisis’ or deep rooted problems. The process aims to assist the person to have an improved self awareness and gain a more intimate understanding of their problems. Therapy provides the client with an increased ability to make effective decisions with increased self determination and improved personal understanding.

Therapy takes place at regular intervals (normally a weekly appointment) and is an opportunity for people to talk about their problems, feelings and difficulties in a safe, secure, dependable and confidential environment that is free from judgement and where they are shown respect and dignity at all times. The therapeutic relationship assists the client to discuss and address aspects of their life The therapist works from the client’s frame of reference and lets them take control of their own therapeutic session. The client leads the dance so to speak and the therapist facilitates the session so the client is able to address specific issues, difficulties, problems with the aim to make changes and decisions to move on. By respecting the clients position the therapist will help the client deal with and cope with specific problems or crises, improve relationships, gain more self awareness and help the client to live a better life.

The therapist normally does not offer advice or tell the client what to do alternatively they help them to gain a better understanding of their behaviour, feelings and emotions and enable the client to choose to make changes. By commiting to a regular normally weekly session with their counsellor or therapist they have an increased chance of addressing and over coming their problems.

There are a number of different psychotherapeutic approaches: Person centred, Cognitive Behavioural, Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Integrative, etc. The core to any therapy where one talks about their issues is that they have a positive, effective, honest and healthy working relationship. So it is vitally important that the client and therapist feel comfortable working together.

The person-centred approach is generally optimistic, having a strong belief in human potential for fulfilment and growth and the positive idea that given the correct environmental conditions people can live significant lives with ample opportunity for happiness. The therory encorages empathy as a result of the focus on individual experience. There is a focus on the here and now and being in the moment, experiencing all the thoughts, feelings and emotions in that space in time.