Simon Arthur-Smith
Registered Member MÌÇÐĹÙÍø (Accredited)
Contact information
- Phone number
- 07500150730
Therapist - Hove
Features
Availability
I see clients on a face-to-face basis in Hove on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (ad hoc Saturday appointments on a face-to-face basis are also generally possible.)
I offer telephone and remote video appointments Mondays through Fridays, although at present there is limited availability for such appointments Wednesdays through Fridays.
About me and my therapy practice
I am a counsellor working in private practice in Brighton & Hove since 2009.
My counselling approach is fundamentally informed by the humanistic or "person-centred" school of psychotherapy pioneered by Carl Rogers (1902-87.)
In essence the Rogerian person-centred psychotherapeutic approach is that you, the client, have all the answers to the problems in your life within you, and that these answers can be unlocked by you with the help of an effective therapist, who really listens, and who is empathic, genuine and totally non-judgmental.
Once you, the client, hear for yourself, with the counsellor's help, just how you really think and operate in your day-to-day life (including aspects that you have hitherto not been consciously alert to), you are then in a much better position to make changes that will bring positive benefits.
I am also a trained EMDR practitioner, and a Member of the EMDR Association UK and Ireland. EMDR is a powerful, scientifically-proven psychotherapy which helps people recover from traumatic events in their lives, which have impacted and continue to impact their lives adversely.
Practice description
The 'outcomes' we get in our day-to-day lives are in large measure the result of our internal psychological processes and our beliefs about ourselves and the world; whilst we may not always understand it to be the case, we are in reality the authors of our destiny in a great many respects.
By re-evaluating, with the help of an able counsellor, our current day-to-day psychological processes and inherent beliefs, to assess the extent to which these serve - or impede - us in meeting our goals, we can arrive at different outcomes in life to those we are currently experiencing.
A significant part of the role of counsellor - as an impartial 'observer' of the life and current circumstances of you, the client - is to render your existing ways of thinking and beliefs accessible for examination and re-evaluation by you, so that you can change them, if you so wish, for ways that serve you better.
Quite often a good many of our processes and beliefs are operating below the threshold of our conscious awareness, but having a huge sway on our 'way of being' in the world nonetheless. Counselling is in large part about becoming 'self-aware' of our internal world so that we can decide to what extent it is helping or hindering us in having the life we want for ourselves. It is not so much the things which we know we are ignorant of that we should really get concerned about - it's the things we're unaware of not knowing that can be responsible for much havoc that is occurring in our lives!
My first session
I conduct a detailed exploratory appointment for you to get a sense of me and how I work, and for me to be able to get a good appreciation of you and your history, and a clear sense of what you want to address in counselling.
Exploratory appointments for individuals cost £35 and last between 60 and 75 minutes. Exploratory appointments for couples cost £70 and last 90 minutes.
What I can help with
Abuse, AIDS/HIV, Anxiety, Autism spectrum, Bereavement, Depression, LGBTQ+ counselling, Loss, Mood disorder, Neurodiversity, Pet bereavement, Post-traumatic stress, Relationships, Self esteem, Service veterans, Sexuality, Stress, Trauma, Work related issues
Types of therapy
EMDR, Person centred, Relational
Clients I work with
Adults, Couples, Older adults
How I deliver therapy
Long term sessions, Long-term face-to-face work, Online therapy, Short term sessions, Short-term face-to-face work, Telephone therapy, Time-limited
Languages spoken
French