Samantha Martin: Counsellor in Newton Abbot How Can Therapy Help Me?
Life doesn’t always unfold in the ways we imagined.
Experiencing a major change in your life, noticing you’re feeling stuck in familiar patterns, or sensing that something isn’t sitting right anymore can be hard to deal with. It’s understandable that unexpected events and emotions can leave you feeling unsure about what to do next.
Now you’ve found yourself here, that may mean you’re already exploring the possibility of individual counselling support and wondering how therapy can help you – that’s a positive step. Here I explain more about how private counselling support can help you gain some insight, explore your options and move forward.
Stepping into the Unknown
If you haven’t experienced counselling before, seeking counselling help can feel like stepping into the unknown — Where do I start? How can therapy help me?
And even if you’ve had some counselling before, it’s natural to feel a little anxious about opening up. What brings you here might be woven through your early experiences, painful memories, or the stories you’ve carried about who you are and how life should be. It can be hard to talk about these things.
At Candlewood Counselling, I support you to begin to open up about the changes and challenges you’re trying to navigate. I help those who might be re-assessing their direction, or feeling stressed and over-stretched by the demands of everyday life. As an experienced counsellor, I offer a steady, attuned space where you can show up as yourself and work at your own pace.
Meeting You Where You Are
Wherever you are right now — whether you’re living with anxiety, trauma, a sense of uncertainty about who you are, or how things could be different — I’ll meet you with acceptance and respect for what you’re experiencing.
Therapy can offer a calm, validating time and space where you can slow down and start making sense of what’s going on for you. It’s an opportunity to focus solely on what you want and need, in order to feel lighter and brighter. Developing a trusting, authentic therapeutic bond with your counsellor is central to the process of exploring and healing – this relationship is at the heart of my approach to counselling in my Newton Abbot practice. You can read more detailed information about my approach to counselling on my About page
The parts of your life that we might explore
More Than Just Talking
Counselling isn’t just about talking — it’s about building a safe, unique connection with your therapist. It’s about how we explore the world through your lens, understand how your past and present shape each other, and find ways forward that feel authentic and sustainable.
I can provide a reflective space for you to experience your feelings, express them safely, and think about what living well really means for you.
When You’re Ready
When you feel ready to take the next step, or if you’re just curious about what counselling might feel like, reach out. I’m here to support you whenever you’re ready. If you’d like to read a little more about how counselling can help a specific problem or issue, the section below gives more details about the some of the areas counselling can help with.
I’d love to hear from you, chat about your situation, and see how we might work together at Candlewood Counselling.
"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you are not going to stay where you are" - J.P.Morgan
Professional Counselling Newton Abbot: What Type of Issues Can I Help You With?
As an experienced counsellor, there are a range of issues that I can help you with.
To find out how therapy could help with a particular issue or problem, click on one of the section headings below.
Help for Anxiety & Depression
Anxiety & Depression
Symptoms of anxiety and depression can manifest themselves in many ways. You may feel wired, restless or trapped in cycles of worry if you experience anxiety. Depression can make your motivation and energy disappear. It can make you feel like everything is an effort. Sometimes anxiety and depression can both exist at the same time, which can leave you feeling both tense and drained. Anxiety and depression are not reflections on your strength as a person. Instead, they’re indications that something internally is needing support. In counselling, you can explore what has been contributing to these feelings. You can learn about why these patterns repeat themselves but also how to find practical ways to help yourself on a daily basis. If you experience anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms or both visit my Anxiety & Depression page to learn more about working with anxiety and depression.
Help for Relationship Difficulties
Individual Relationship Issues
Relationships, at our best, can help us to feel happy and connected. They allow us to grow and support our personal development. But relationships can also be challenging. They have the potential to make us feel isolated, anxious or even hurt. There may be times when you feel as though you simply can’t communicate effectively with friends, family, work colleagues others around you. You may feel lonely and like you cannot express how you really feel. If you are struggling with your partner and your relationship is feeling shaky, unsure or just plain unhappy, counselling can help. Individually tailored support can help you to look at how trust and stability can begin to develop, starting with you and working outward. We can look at what you truly want and need from your work life, relationships with family or significant others. We can take action towards creating healthier relationships and see how you can get your needs met.
Click on the Relationships page to learn more about how I can help you individually with relationship issues.
Help for Trauma
Trauma
Trauma can stem from various experiences – growing up in a difficult childhood environment, loss of a loved one, physical or emotional abuse, accidents, serious illness, big life transitions, to name just a few. Trauma is often misunderstood because it doesn’t just relate to what happens to you, but how you felt during and after it happened to you. Trauma describes how your past experiences affect your sense of safety and trust when navigating through daily life. Trauma responses like anxiety, hypervigilance, feeling numb and having flashbacks are your normal reaction to abnormal situations. However, many find these reactions towards others and different situations difficult to comprehend, cope with or explain.
Within counselling, we can unpack these reactions in a way that feels right for you and at your own pace – only going over what you’re ready to work on. Counselling can help you gain a deeper understanding of what you are feeling and experiencing so that you can feel more grounded, centered and in control of yourself.
Click here to learn more about how I can support you through processing trauma.
Help for Low Confidence
Confidence
It doesn’t feel good to second guess yourself all the time. Perhaps you struggle to speak your mind, sabotage or distrust your decisions, or simply don’t feel comfortable in your own skin. Low confidence and self esteem can affect so much of everyday life; your job, relationships, sense of identity and place in the world. Just because someone experiences low self esteem or self worth, doesn’t mean they ‘look’ like someone lacking confidence in themselves. Many people who struggle with self esteem issues have spent years learning how to ‘hide’ those feelings behind a smile or an over-confident persona. For others, over-working or perfectionism can be a mask for low confidence.
In therapy, we can explore what’s going on behind the mask or whatever it is that’s troubling you. With patience and understanding you can learn to develop a more grounded sense of self worth that is genuine and sustainable.
Visit my Low Confidence and Self-esteem to learn more about how I can help you overcome issues with low confidence and self esteem.
Help for Life Transitions
Life Changes
Change is part of life. But just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s simple or painless. Change and transition can be exciting and joyful. But they can also trigger mixed emotions, bring up unresolved past events , and leave you feeling stuck or unsure of next steps. Life transitions, new beginnings, and loss are all things that counselling can help you navigate. You’ll have the time and space to process what’s changing and figure out what it means for you. You’ll learn how to find clarity and confidence in your own rhythm and path — embracing the life you have now.
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
— Joseph Campbell
Help for Grief & Loss
Grief
Grief can take many forms. It sometimes surfaces when something valuable in our lives changes or ceases to be. We can associate grief with losing someone dear to us through death. However grief can also be triggered by the loss of; a partner; changes to our health; children leaving home; finishing a career or retirement. We can even feel grief for things we never had. Or for the certainty and structure life once seemed to offer. Whatever you’re feeling; sadness. Anger. Guilt. Numbness. You can be helped to make sense of your emotions and learn how to adapt to life after your loss. There’s no right or wrong way to grieve. This is about finding the way that works for you. At your own pace. If you’d like to read more about how I can help with grief and loss, visit my grief and loss page here.
“I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.”
— C. S. Lewis
Help for Difficult Early Experiences
Early Experiences
Childhood wounds can impact how you view yourself, how safe you feel with others and how you react to situations around you. Sometimes we experience anxiety, insecurity, people pleasing tendencies, perfectionism or unexplainable shame/emptiness in adulthood. These can be indicators of Adverse Childhood Experiences affecting you as an adult. Therapy provides a safe and nonjudgmental space to explore these wounds and learn how to heal from them. Building a strong relationship with your therapist can help you learn how to trust again, work through trauma and establish a more solid sense of self. You haven’t carried this weight alone for so long; therapy can be a place to start putting some of it down.
“Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… anyone can start over and make a new ending.”
— Chico Xavier
Help for Stress
Stress
“I was diamond on the outside, and I would not break. Inside, though, I was already broken.”
— Shaun David Hutchinson
Stress can creep up on us or come out of nowhere. It might build slowly – too many things on your mind and plate. Non-stop problem solving at work. Mental (and literal) overload. Or stress can be triggered by a particular change or situation. You might recognise yourself as being stressed if you’re experiencing tension in your body – tense shoulders, headaches, feeling your heart racing, or general fatigue that won’t go away even after plenty of rest. Stress can impact our emotions too – feeling anxious, irritable, weepy, ‘foggy’ or unable to make decisions. Counselling can help you to slow down and process what’s going on – to identify your stressors and how your mind and body reacts to them. And to find practical ways to start to feel more grounded and calm again. Click here to learn more about how I can help with stress.