Hi,
Thanks for coming to have a look around my page. I thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself :)
I’m Laura, I live with my family and our cat in Bingley, West Yorkshire. Originally from York, I love the hills and scenery of this area although it makes cycling a bit more challenging! I like to be outside, being amongst trees is my happy place and being by the sea fills my soul with calmness. The first place I visited after lockdown was St Annes on the West Coast and I will never forget the feeling of space and freedom after the effects of being stuck for what felt like forever. I also enjoy spending time with my extended family and with my friends, and make sure I make space in my life for this on a regular basis.
Since leaving education, I felt like I worked in jobs that I fell into – they were ok, paid the bills and facilitated me to live my life away from work but I never quite felt comfortable in them.. I really enjoyed working in teams and getting to see my colleagues every day and I also enjoyed meeting new people, hearing different life stories and problem solving. I struggled with the politics of the business environment. I often felt like I had little or no voice in my role, things felt out of kilter and this led to significant periods of work related stress and anxiety. I tried changing organisations but the feeling always caught up with me. In the end I had to take a step back, a deep breath and think about how I was going to step out of the cycle I was stuck in.
I had some counselling whilst struggling with one of my cycles of work related stress and something clicked. I learnt so much about myself, unravelled a lot of the messy thinking I was experiencing and faced up to a significant loss of someone close to me and the grief I had been carrying. I also realised I did not want to still be working in HR by the time I retired. It was time for a change. By this time I had already completed an evening counselling course with Yorkshire Counselling Training and this, coupled with my counselling experience, lit a fire inside me. I felt like I actually knew what I wanted to spend my time doing and I had found a career that I was choosing.
I now work as a Mental Health Crisis support worker in Bradford and Craven, volunteer with Bradford Bereavement Support and Bradford Doulas and have just opened my own counselling practice with a lovely room in the heart of Eldwick and Gilstead with easy access from Baildon, Shipley and Keighley.
Life is not always easy, but I love my work and I have have achieved a work life balance that I am happy with. I get to meet new people, hear their life stories, work with them to untangle the complexities of their experiences and help them to find the space to work out what is the right way forward for them.
If you would like to know about how counselling can help you, feel free to contact me.
