Often in our hectic world it can be easy to lose focus on what you want, and instead just end up ‘going with the flow’. Sometimes this can leave you with a life that is unsatisfying, feeling less meaningful than you would like.  Personal development work with a clinical psychologist can focus specifically on aspects of life that are not serving you as well as you wish, and involves setting goals to work towards in relation to these. Your psychologist will help you accomplish what you wish – hopefully with startling results!

 

What is personal development at Flourish?

 

Personal development is a process whereby a client and a psychologist focus on a specific issue, set goals in relation to it and then work towards achieving these goals in a way that overcomes any difficulties or challenges encountered. The role of the psychologist is to provide motivation, support and substantial psychological experience to enable the client to actually accomplish what they wish (not always as easy as it seems!). Personal development differs from counselling, psychotherapy or CBT in that it is not designed to address situations where a client is encountering substantial emotional distress.

 

The concept of personal development and coaching is derived from high performance sports, in which athletes / players are coached to develop skills and enhance performance.  Personal development is now employed more generally by people similarly wishing to develop and maximise their potential at work or in life generally.  The process is often the same as in sports coaching, namely identifying specific goals or targets, developing a plan, overcoming barriers and then achieving them. Invariably clients leave a personal development session with some particular ‘task’ to do.

 

Personal development with a psychologist

 

We have a number of personal development courses available which focus on specific common issues that people often seek support for. These are offered on a one-to-one basis for individual self-funding clients and consist of five sessions with a psychologist. Personal development courses are offered as a block and must be paid for before the first session is scheduled.

 

Often we are held back in specific things at work and at home due to very specific difficulties that seem to recur. These often include things like:

 

• Lack of assertiveness / ability to say no (or yes)

• Procrastination

• Fear of public speaking

• Managing anger

• Dealing with conflicts, etc.

 

Personal development on a specific area such as this can help you overcome the difficulties you encounter and achieve the goals you wish as a result.