Barbro Magnusson
BACP Accredited & Registered | BCPC Approved
Counselling & Psychotherapy for Individuals and Couples
Counsellor / Psychotherapist in Stroud & Bristol for Couples & Individuals
Practising in Stroud & central Bristol
M: 07988 516 845
 T: 0117 299 3223
me@barbromagnusson.co.uk
One of my former clients shared a valuable insight into why they entered into the theraputic process & how counselling helped them, which I’d like to share with you:

Because...

it’s not always enough to talk things through with friends or family members.
B
it’s helpful to have an impartial witness to your discoveries.
E
our heads & hearts are jigsaw puzzles which sometimes need help putting back together.
C
the past is the sad me grew up in, an it is right now that matters!
A
healing our hurts means weldon’t pass it on.
U
healing our hurts also makes room for new possibilities and a new life.
S
saying it out loud, no matter how silly it seems, is better than pushing it back down.
E

I work in the following areas:

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Couples
Individuals
Inner Child
Couple Counselling
“A good relationship is not static. True loving requires continual reassessment of our lives; change is its only constant. Ask each other often: ‘In what way is this relationship not yet all we want it to be? What is the next step in making it so?”
Nancy Kline
You may be thinking of embarking on therapy if you are experiencing issues with:

• Communication breakdown
• Feeling stuck
• Repeating patterns
• Undermining patterns of behaviour
• Sexuality
• Intimacy
• Body Image
• Finance
• Parenting
• Life changes (separation, bereavement, redundancy, depression)
It can be challenging to talk together when things have been hidden or avoided. My role as the counsellor is to be impartial, supportive and to create a sense of safety, relief and support. This atmosphere of safety and trust can lead you both to deeper understanding and intimacy.

In my couples work, I believe it is essential to recognise what is working in the relationship. The love can be obscured when problems feel overwhelming. It is important to explore and acknowledge each individual’s strengths, resources and coping skills.

Sometimes, turning to therapy to end a relationship can be the most loving and healthy thing to do. There are times when a relationship has simply run its course. There can be a deep sense of liberation in recognising that it is time to end. If separation is decided upon, I support you to do so with respect for each other. This is especially pertinent if children are involved. There may also be valuable time spent in thinking through practicalities working through a separation with children to consider.

Whatever course the relationship takes, my focus is always to support and encourage a positive outcome for both people and to find a deeper love and understanding for themselves and each other. It is important that you both enter into the work with a genuine desire to face whatever may be standing in the way.
One-to-one therapy for individuals
“Be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself at least as well as you have ever treated your dearest love and as you should always have been treated: with compassion, high expectations, forgiveness and delight. Only then can you treat others and the world well enough.”
Christopher Spence
It can be easy to lose track of ourselves and who we truly are. Working one-to-one with a professional therapist provides a unique opportunity. You can fully focus on yourself, what might be worrying you, getting neglected, or needs attention. It is your special time.

I am skilled at offering an environment where you can explore the origin of your difficulties so that insight, growth and healing may take place.
Inner child – 12 week intensive course - Stroud Only
“Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth. It is sad that so many parents don't realise what messages they are sending”.
Virginia Satir
As babies and children we look to our mother, or primary care-giver, for reassurance and acceptance. If we were deprived of this early mirroring and loving attention, it can have repercussions on how we feel about ourselves. We can go through life finding it hard to trust, to feel safe and to accept love.

Many people, who experienced this kind of wounding, can also suffer as adults with depression, anxiety and a sense of ‘numbing out’. Working with a professional therapist gives you the chance to revisit this early wounding and to experience healthy, loving mirroring and to heal the pain.

I offer a 12-week intensive inner child re-parenting course. This work goes to the core of inner child wounding, and is suitable for people who previously have had therapy or other personal development work and feel strong enough within themself to explore childhood wounding.

I work with empathy at the very deepest level; my approach is gentle and nurturing and speaks directly to the younger self. Although this process is deeply sensitive and compassionate, this course is likely to stir up pain and disturbance, as we will be going deeply into childhood trauma.

It gives people who are willing to commit to their own inner child healing an invaluable opportunity to work through this core pain and to learn to love and integrate this part of themselves. I approach this work holistically, using touch, physical holding, breathing, visualisation, meditation and sometimes art.

This 12-week course is only suitable for people who have done extensive inner work. Course is currently only available in Stroud.