Here's an interview with our lovely team member Roxy. She is a qualified counsellor with a specialist focus on eating disorders, working at our Poundbury Therapy Rooms.
Here we find out a little bit more about Roxanne and her passion:
What’s your name, and your role within the Wellbeing Practice team?
Hi, my name is Roxanne. I joined the Wellbeing Practice Poundbury Counselling Team in September 2022.
I’m a Dorset bread lady. Brought up on a small holding farm surrounded by animals and the freedom of our beautiful countryside. It was a great place to grow up.
I joined Wellbeing Practice after qualifying as an integrative counsellor.
What’s that? You may ask.
Well, in a nutshell, it means; Integrative Counselling is a combined approach to psychotherapy that brings together different elements of specific therapies. Integrative therapists take the view that there is no single approach that can treat each client in all situations.
Rather, each person is considered as a whole and counselling techniques are tailored to your individual needs and personal circumstances.
I have also recently qualified to specialise and work with sufferers of Eating Disorders
and Disorderly Eating.
Currently, I work face-to-face counselling at Poundbury working with people with chronic
anxiety issues caused as a result of prolonged loneliness and difficult persistent life
demands, such as full-time caring.
I will be broadening my clientele at Wellbeing Practice and I’m super excited to announce an upcoming workshop offering support for family, carers and friends of those with Eating Disorders or Disorderly Eating very soon.
Alongside this work I also work in a secondary school, supporting young people ages 11 to 18 with their various challenges.
How did you get into your area of specialism/practice?
After many years of working holistically with troubled families and supporting them to access the services they need. I come to feel passionate about therapy and counselling realising its true worth.
I felt hugely frustrated with the lack of service available for adults' and children’s mental health. I believe that a counsellor should be readily available, just like visiting your Doctor. (Not that that is very easy these days!)
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be offered a safe confidential space? Where the time is all yours. Where someone will truly listen to you, and give you their undivided attention to understand your world with no judgement, no preconceptions, no influences, and no opinions, just all about you and how you view your world. Whenever do we get that in life, other than with a counsellor? The problem doesn’t have to feel huge or be affecting how you manage your world. It is just as important to share the niggles before they build into something bigger. Being in the presence of a therapist who ‘gets it’ can help to undo and straighten out the knots of the mind.
I offer Integrative therapy that helps to create a healthy alliance between mind and body - empowering clients to start setting goals and practising new behaviours that will enable them to move beyond their limitations and discover greater life satisfaction. My Integrative therapy is tailored to the client's wants and needs. It’s unique to each individual and most importantly is client lead.
It is through this work that it came to my attention the increase in Eating Disorders and Disorderly Eating. Where specialised support is difficult to find in our rural Dorset. This is when I decided to become more educated to offer unique skills and nurture through therapy to those that struggle with such disorders, whether diagnosed or not.
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What Roxy's clients say therapy feels like
Roxy!
Eating disorder specialist
What does ‘wellbeing’ mean to you?
Wellbeing to me means looking after my physical and mental wellbeing (of course these are totally linked together). To keep myself well both physically and mentally I like to spend time in nature, on walks with the dog and helping on the farm. I like to be around loved ones and meet and chat with friends, but I also really appreciate time on my own. To be well takes conscious effort and time, which at times can feel difficult. I think it's important to recognise ‘who we are’ and ‘how we are’ at different times and seek support if we fall short of understanding or accessing this.
What does ‘happiness’ mean to you?
Ah, Happiness. Great question! I think we have an idea of happiness, but is it real? Is it maintainable? Or is it just something that strikes us in a moment and flits away again?
I love happy occasions, moments where you feel proud, or witness someone else’s beam of
joy, there are lots of happy moments, but they really are fleeting moments.
I’d rather focus on contentment – I mean that’s what most of us can relate to, right? If we
focus on happiness we struggle to pinpoint them and that in itself can feel sad. But if we
talk about contentment then that makes me feel good.
I beam with pride when my son achieves something that he is proud of.
I feel good when I’ve finished the housework and can relax in a tidy clean space.
I feel energised when I dance and am foolish to music.
I feel uplifted when I meet with a friend and we inspire each other in the news and chit-chat.
I beam when I see someone else make positive changes and breakthroughs.
I feel wholesome when I’m on a walk in the countryside.
Yeah - Contentment makes me feel happy.
What’s the most common thing that you help people with, or that people come to you struggling with?
Gosh, that’s a difficult one to answer. Everyone has such unique factors and characteristics it
feels wrong to generalise.
I see and hear a lot of anxiety and this can show itself in many shapes and sizes, mostly based on fear. The existential crisis I’d say
Existential therapy is one of the most commonly used so far in my journey. It is about helping clients make sense of their place in their world: to find alignment between societal, cultural and individual expectations. It’s a very client-focused, empowering way of working.
Depression
Loneliness
Lack of belonging
Lack of self-worth and self-esteem.
Disorderly eating
Anger
Exhaustion
Loss/Bereavement.
Trauma new and old
Issues with attending school
Family issues and break-ups
Change</