Relationship Counselling in Inverness
Most of what’s hardest in life happens between people. Partners, parents, children, friends, colleagues. When one of those connections goes wrong, it colours everything else.
I’m Josh, a counsellor based in Inverness. Sessions are held online, by video call, so we can work together wherever you are.
I work with individuals
Worth being clear up front: I work with people one to one, not with couples in the room together.
That’s a different thing from couples therapy, and for a lot of people it’s the more useful one. You might be trying to work out whether to stay. Your partner might have no interest in counselling. The relationship causing you trouble might be with a parent, an adult child, or someone who died before anything got resolved. None of those are jobs for couples work.
If what you want is both of you in the room with a therapist, you’d be better served by a couples counsellor, and Relate offer that across the UK.
What people bring
- The same argument, on a loop, about something that isn’t really the thing
- Drifting apart, without any single event to point at
- Wondering whether to stay, and feeling unable to say that out loud to anyone
- A parent whose approval never quite arrives
- An adult child who has stopped speaking to you
- Feeling like the one who does all the adjusting
- Losing yourself somewhere inside someone else’s needs
- Repeating a pattern you can see clearly and still can’t stop
How counselling helps
You only get to change your half. That sounds like a limitation and it’s actually the useful part, because your half is the half you have access to.
We’d look at what happens in the pattern, what your part in it is, and what it protects. Most relationship difficulties involve people doing something that made complete sense once and doesn’t any more. Seeing that clearly, without being told off for it, is usually where the movement starts.
We’d also look at what you actually want, which sounds simple and often isn’t. People arrive knowing precisely what they don’t want and having no idea what they’d choose instead.
I won’t tell you whether to stay or go. That isn’t my call, and any counsellor who makes it for you is doing you a disservice.
Working online from Inverness
I’m based in Inverness and work with people across the Highlands and further afield, online.
There’s a particular advantage here in a smaller community. If you’re working out whether your marriage is ending, you may not want to be seen going into a counselling room in town. Online sessions are private in a way that matters when the subject is this exposed.
The practical requirement is somewhere you won’t be overheard. If that’s difficult at home, say so and we’ll work out something that suits.
Common questions
Can my partner come too?
Not to sessions with me. I work with individuals. If you want joint sessions, look for a couples counsellor.
Is it disloyal to talk about my relationship without them?
No. Having somewhere to think honestly, without managing the other person’s reaction in real time, is often what makes a more honest conversation possible later.
What if I already know it’s over?
Then the work is often about how to end it decently, and how to make sense of it afterwards. That’s a legitimate reason to come.
It’s not my partner, it’s my mother.
That’s a very common reason people get in touch. Family relationships are frequently the ones with the deepest grooves in them.
Somewhere to start
If you’d like to talk about whether counselling might help, send me a short message. You don’t need to have it worked out first.
Get in touch · Counselling in Inverness · What else I help with