Close up of blue and white paint being mixed with a palette knife. Marbled swirls of different shades of phthalo blue

Here Am I Counselling

Person-centred counselling

Relationship counselling

Art therapy

Rowan McAuley

HereAmICounselling@gmail.com

0413 327 333

Online and Face-to-face

Armidale, NSW

Abstract picture using blue, brown and purple acrylic inks and gold and black pigment.

Here am I

‘Here am I’ is the most powerful statement a human being can make.

To come to counselling is to say to another person, ‘Look, here am I — I’m turning up for myself, I’m making myself visible to you, I’m letting you know who I am.’

And the goal of counselling, of all personal transformation, is to be able to see yourself honestly, know yourself truly, and say to yourself and to the rest of the world, ‘Here am I. And isn’t that extraordinary?’

Well, and here I am …

Photo of Rowan McAuley, looking to camera and faintly smiling. She has glasses and short hair and is sitting near a window

… but why me?

I am a person-centred counsellor with a background in writing children’s books, and a life-long passion for creative expression. My experience as a relationship counsellor, marriage educator and mental health support worker has shown me that all people have a deep hunger for meaning, beauty and significance in their lives, and that where time and space are created to think, feel and imagine, there is always the possibility of real change.

I believe you are the expert in your own life, and that as a counsellor, I am being given the privilege of listening to you fully, and then collaborating with you in dreaming and deciding how you would like things to be different.

If you think you would like to work with me, we can arrange a time to talk on the phone for 20 minutes to see if we are a good fit before booking a first appointment. You can phone or text me on: 0413 327 333

Art is a heart language

Using art in therapy is not about making something ‘artistic’ or impressing anyone with the final result. Instead it is a process of sensual, experimental, and practical exploration. The natural, spontaneous pleasures (and anxieties) of creative play and personal expression can be a gentle but dynamic opening up of those things difficult to say.

Counselling is often described as ‘talk therapy,’ but so much of our lives evades words. How do we counsel around those parts?

Early childhood memory, dreams, trauma, child birth, expanded states of consciousness — many of our most vivid and important moments are felt in the body and stored as visual images or sensation. Using colour, shape, texture and movement, we can discover a language for these unspoken and unspeakable things.

And, almost miraculously, once made visible, once another person can see what has been made, we find that there are in fact things that can be said and understood — ways that the wordless can be brought into the room and made sense of together.

Abstract picture in blues and purples, watercolour and coloured pencil. Colours are moving like currents of water, with lines like tiny roots or neurones.

Relationship Counselling

NSW coast — a blue sky, lightly dotted with clouds over a deep blue ocean, mountain ranges in the distance, on the horizon. The water is slightly choppy with some white caps in the distance.

Relationship counselling is not just for romantic partners. Parent and child, siblings, family groups, and even good friends can from time to time benefit from extra support to find new ways to communicate.

More than anything, what brings people to relationship counselling is a sense of being stuck — the feeling that where once the relationship flowed naturally and being together was effortless, now there has been a drying up, a stiffening or shrinking. Maybe the same argument goes around and around endlessly, or maybe conversation has stopped altogether and what you share instead is silence.

In the counselling room, we will work together to create a safe space for you to find how to be fully yourselves again with one another. To say, ‘Here am I — and I see you too.‘

This seeing-each-other-fully process can, in time, help people to discover the deep story under the problem. The thing that drives them to counselling might look like frustrations about sex, money, faith, or family. But allowing room to slow down and soften, we find yet more tender questions are waiting: Is it okay for me to bring all of myself to you? Can I hold onto myself when I am vulnerable with you? Can we find ways to forgive one another for the times we have caused each other and ourselves shame or pain or fear?

Coming to one another in such honesty is a truly heroic act, and needs to be honoured as such. When we are together, I will help you hold the space to speak up for the small and hidden parts of yourselves, and to hear one another better.