Relationship Counselling
Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples and Families
Celia Hardwick BA MBACP ICEEFT Certified EFT Therapist
"Celia is brilliant, warm and absolutely wonderful. We highly recommend her for EFT couples therapy.
My (same-sex) partner and I were aware of some key needs differences when we first met but due to shared values and life goals decided to invest in our relationship and do the work. At first we tried figuring it out alone but it was frustrating and tiring - especially as our energy levels for tackling such work were quite different. We wanted a third party to lead us so we could feel on more equal footing; like teammates with a coach rather than opposing forces nagging each other.
Celia has the ability to make each partner feel equally seen, heard and valued. She helped us learn the skills needed to navigate different needs with loving compassion, never forgetting to be true to ourselves in the process. With Celia's help we were able to make small, manageable changes that helped our relationship enormously. While we've always respected and cared for each other, we now also feel trusting and empowered to tackle anything together - creating a very loving and secure bond. We miss our sessions with Celia and wish her all the very best in life!"
"We'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your sessions and explain that after a bit of a gap we've built the confidence to say we feel comfortable with the progress we've made. Everything you've walked us through has made huge changes to where we're at and we're so much more aware of ourselves and each other. You've given us great tools to continue forwards with and we're happy to say that we think we're capable of moving forwards stronger without the need for extra support.
We'd like to wish you the best and confirm that we no longer need any sessions booked. It's hard to get across how grateful we are for all the support you've offered through a very tough time, thank you"
"My partner and I began seeing Celia just a few months ago. I have been amazed and relieved by the difference the sessions have made. Celia's work has helped us iron out the most difficult problems we were having. And in a surprisingly short space of time resentment and weariness have become happiness and healing. Things have improved so much and we could stop the process at this point but are opting to continue because we know how much good our time with Celia brings our relationship and our own personal happiness. If you are reading this and feeling despair I really encourage you to try Emotionally Focused Therapy"
"We have had a series of sessions with Celia over the past 6 months, and we are extremely grateful to Celia for the changes that we have seen in our relationship in that time. After the first session, it was clear that Celia was very kind and compassionate. We quickly felt safe sharing our problems with her without being judged.
As we continued to meet, Celia helped us establish our behavioral patterns, and showed us how our actions could be misinterpreted by the other person, and what needs and feelings hide behind these patterns. We learned how to stay cool when an argument is ripening, to always try and see a person you love behind immediate emotions, and to maintain the balance between being open with the person you love without hurting them. Celia's ability not only to listen, but to make you feel understood, to trace complex emotions, unwind them and provide practical advice allowed us to reconnect and to feel happier. Of course, change takes time and we are still learning. Our time with Celia has given us the awareness and tools to help ourselves navigate difficult times. We are extremely grateful for our time with Celia and would highly recommend her!"
"After a little discussion this evening we both feel that we are in the best place we’ve been for a while ( all thanks to you )
Our marriage is continuing to go from strength to strength ( still no arguing ) so it feels like the right time for us to keep going on our own now.
We’re both so grateful for the help and guidance you have given to us both in our sessions - I truly believe you have saved our marriage ( and me ) - so thank you !! "
"We started couples counselling with Celia around 9 months ago, entering the room as a couple that couldn’t see a way forward or a future together. Over the months we learnt how to listen and communicate better with each other with, at times it wasn’t easy but with Celia's support , honesty and guidance we started to make progress. It took time and for us both to reflect on ourselves and realise that we both had to change to make the relationship work, this was something Celia made clear to us from the start. She was patient and understanding, working with us until finally something changed and things started to improve. We have now ended our sessions planning our future together with a much happier family unit and having the tools to work through our issues and face any challenges that lie ahead".
"We've just had our last couples counselling session with you and we just wanted to take the time to thank you for all of the help and support you have provided us with over the last few months.
When we first reached out for help I really wasn't sure that we would be able to address the issues we were having since they were seriously contributing to my mental health and anxiety issues. Through your counselling you've enabled us to learn to communicate, understand and most importantly show how much we love each other again.
My own mental health has improved significantly. We are now confident that by following the advice and using the tools you have provided us with we will go on to continue to have a happy and healthy relationship for many many years to come.
Thank you again for everything, it really does mean so much
"Thanks so much for your help, our love and relationship has been refreshed. And our relationship is giving us both so much happiness & pleasure"
"Celia was wonderful. She was extremely empathic, understanding both points of view clearly. I would recommend her to anyone contemplating couples counselling"
"I know that nothing in life is certain and things change, but we've bonded more through this time and I'm very happy and we are very happy together. You started it all for us - you facilitated it and I wanted to say thank you. There might be a time in the future when we will need you again I daresay! But thank you for all that you've done for us"
"Dear Celia,
There are no words to express how grateful we are to have landed at the hands of a professional like you.
We will never forget how much you have helped us, and will continue to work together the way you have showed us. Thank you for your guidance and perseverance."
"Before engaging Celia we had the foundations for a great relationship but kept derailing it by each of us worrying about being judged on our pasts. This lead to lies, mistrust and a breakdown in communication when certain subjects arose.
We were a bit daunted beforehand having seen how couples therapies is on TV!
we needn't of worries as over the course of only 8 sessions (6 as a couple, and one individual meeting each) Celia understood us individually and as a couple and identified where the problems lay. She taught us by a number of methods to understand, listen and talk in short sentences, but mainly look at the bigger picture. She was great in helping us to work together to overcome issues, identify the triggers, how to snap out of a bad instance, see so many positives we have and to help us build trust and understanding that we didn't have before meeting her.
Celia is friendly, easy to talk to, totally non judgemental, eloquent and concise. We are so glad we engaged her expertise, as we are a better us as a result."
“Things have been going really well with L and I at the moment- we are in a much better place and I think that is definitely down to even the few sessions we had with you. We are going to continue to see how things go but if things dip or we need to talk it through again we will definitely be looking to come back to see you again; you really helped us to analyse some big issues in our relationship- so thank you”
"Celia's thoughtful analysis of our situation allowed her to deliver carefully tailored advice and suggestions. These were primarily for us as a couple, but she never forgot that there were two individuals in our relationship, and thus that personalised help was also required. Celia guided us from a pretty dark situation back to our happy place through constant and compassionate encouragement. We would like to express our profound gratitude for her words of wisdom."
"At first I was very sceptical about seeking marriage counselling, but from the first contact with Celia, she was very emphatic, caring and understanding.
After speaking to both of us individually at first, and then together she explained the underlying issues, the causes of the problems and came up with strategic solutions for both of us, after implementing these we began to see an improvement instantly.
After just a few sessions what was a dire and bad situation with separation/ divorce looming we can confidently say we have overcome our obstacles and learnt how to cope and manage the stressful situations by better communication and get along much better and i can safely say it is all down to Celia working her magic. She was highly professional and cannot recommend her enough to solve anyone's marital problems"
"We were in a very bad place as a couple, on the verge of giving up. Celia's guidance and strategy led us through some very difficult steps in order to understand the areas we needed to work on both as individuals and as a couple. For us, that enabled us to communicate more openly with each other which has been the key to our being able to rekindle our relationship. Celia gave us the tools to continue to work through any issues that may arise in the future. We will be forever grateful for her help. We have our life back"
"We'd like to offer you our heartfelt thanks for your patience and support to get us to this juncture - we're determined not to waste any of the things we have noticed, and now understand better, as a result of your help. Thank you.
The way life is at the moment, for all of us, it is unlikely that this is goodbye - more, goodbye and thanks for now whilst we see how we are able to capitalise on the ten sessions we have had. It's been our great pleasure to have worked with you during this time and we'd absolutely recommend your service to others who find themselves presented with similar challenges"
"Celia started working with us at a really difficult point in our relationship. Her approach was unassuming, and she took the time to learn and listen to our situation and tailored her sessions to us, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Our conversations with Celia are always compassionate, open, and interesting. Her work has helped us to identify ways to form a deeper connection and stronger bond. We think that any couple would benefit from speaking with her, and can’t recommend her work highly enough"
"Celia really made a huge difference for our relationship. Her insight and process provided us with a framework to work through our communication issues in a non-judgemental environment. This has given us the skills to now work through our issues independently, and we would thoroughly recommend her to others"
"Working with Celia has enabled us to recognise behaviours in ourselves and in our relationship which were preventing us from openly communicating with each other and sharing our needs. We are now able to speak and listen to each other and work together to resolve our issues. In such a short amount of time things improved and the changes we have made were surprisingly natural and have been long lasting. Celia has made such a positive impact on our lives, we can't thank her enough"
“We contacted Celia at a point in our lives and in our marriage when we felt like we had reached the end of the road and had nothing more to give one another. Celia helped us learn more about ourselves and to understand one another better; she enabled us to communicate openly and honestly in a trusting and safe environment. We honestly believe we couldn’t have come back to one another without her help.”
"Just wanted to say thank you for your work with us. We are doing really well and we appreciate the difference therapy has made to our relationship.
We will definitely be in touch should we require sessions in the future"
"We have been very happy since our sessions and found them very useful so we feel that we may not need any further sessions at the moment.
However if in the future we feel we need to touch base with you, we will reach out to you"
“After many years, our relationship had become tangled on a number of levels. We were arguing and frustrated. We needed help and agreed to try counselling.
Celia was so easy to talk to. She really listened to both of us and truly understood how we felt. She helped us to unravel the course of our actions that were leading us to conflict and encouraged us to see the individual roles we each played in contributing to this. Soon we were able to recognise the early warning signs and familiar patterns of reactions that sparked these moments of tension. She showed us how, together, we could pause and create new paths that led to a more constructive outcome and a deeper appreciation of each other’s feelings and emotions. Celia made us both feel heard and understood as individuals. Her sessions gave us the time and space to really focus on each other and empowered us with the knowledge and skills to work together to improve our relationship as a couple.
We continue to practise what we’ve learnt from our sessions with Celia and both agree that she was the perfect counsellor for us and her sessions were invaluable.”
"We found the experience to be just the switch up we needed to stop the cycle of bad habits and it helped us develop better communication skills which has bonded us and made our relationship the strongest it’s been"
"My partner and I sought help from Celia in reconnecting to one and other. She helped us to become more positive with each other and voice our struggles. If you are stuck in a rut and you want to bring back a connection then Celia is the one to help. Thanks so much for listening and not judging us it took a lot for us to ask for help but it's the best thing we did"
Feedback after just one session: "I really appreciated the session we had together. I thought you were really lovely. I’ve never had counselling before but you made me feel safe and that you genuinely cared about us and wanted to help us"
"We benefitted enormously from the experience of couples counselling with Celia. Although at times uncomfortable and emotional, we were really helped by sharing our thoughts and feelings in a safe, structured and non-judgmental environment- guided warmly, calmly and gently by Celia, with careful questions and balanced consideration for each of us. I’m used to sharing and talking (in fact try to stop me!) but my husband is more reluctant to delve into his feelings and struggles to articulate them - however the supportive way Celia drew out our experiences benefitted both he and I, and helped us confront our issues and understand each other more. She helped us find a constructive way forwards so that we can continue to share and grow in a relationship that has lasted over 35 years - it still isn’t perfect, but what is? We’re a work in progress and now have some good techniques to help us connect and support each other as well as empathy and a deeper understanding of what makes each other tick"
"Since our regular meetings are coming to an end after more than 6 months, I want to thank you for all the work you have done with us. I feel that our regular meetings with you have been hugely beneficial for our relationship, and that we have been incredibly lucky to have you as our therapist. I don't think there is anyone who knows us as a couple as well as you do: I feel as if we have been treated with true care and understanding, and I am incredibly grateful for that. I have learned a lot about myself and about the dynamic of our relationship, which I would not have if it were not for your help, and I feel more equipped as a result to do what I need to do to get the relationship back to where it should be. Thank you for your help and kindness"
"My wife & I went to see Celia after we noticed we'd been slowly drifting apart and also we found it difficult to discuss certain topics without causing arguments.
Celia provided a safe, non-judgemental place to openly discuss subjects and get to the heart of why each of us reacts the way we do.
As a result, we've been able to fairly quickly get to a position where we both feel closer and also now we can calmly discuss problems which in the past would have resulted in a big argument.
I was a bit dubious at first as to whether this would work and if it would help but it definitely has helped. I have no hesitation in recommending Celia to anyone who wants to work on their relationship.
Thank you so much Celia!"
Thanks again for providing us with exceptional support and counselling during the past months.
"Working with Celia was a very insightful process for my partner and I. EFT provided us with a helpful relational map and we understand more clearly now how some of our difficulties are created and maintained. We recommend Celia, her genuineness and skill, to all couples looking to make changes in how they see each other and communicate"
