Testimonials

We are fortunate to work with children, young people, parents/carers, adults and schools providing a person centred and holistic approach to supporting others. Feedback from our clients is routinely sought in order to enhance our practice and to provide an insight into the way that we work.

 

We came to Essere Therapies when we had nowhere else to turn. Although fully supported by our GP, my 13 year old daughter was not entitled to any help at all as she was not deemed suicidal! It was correct that she was not suicidal but she could barely leave her bedroom, never mind the house, and going to school was an impossibility for her.

Catherine was an absolute life saver for our whole family (because mental health struggles don’t just affect one person in a family, you are all in it together). Her first appointment was a home visit, where she put my daughter at ease straight away and gained her trust. Catherine was honest from the beginning; it wouldn’t be a quick fix but she could help. The relationship that I saw develop over the next 4 or 5 months between Catherine and my daughter was beautiful. They really do care at Essere Therapies, it’s certainly not just a job.

6 months later, my daughter was back in school full time, enjoying her hobbies, happy and confident. Does she have bad days? Yes! But now she has the tools that Catherine taught her to deal with them.
I cannot thank Essere Therapies enough, they gave me my family back.

Play Therapy Client

 

Our time working with Catherine Croll, Play Therapist has been a highly positive and life enhancing experience.

I say positive, although the reason we came to meet Catherine was anything but. We were in a very dark place as a family due to a period of life changing trauma which we had lived through and I can now say with a smile on my face, survived!

Initially the process for us was extremely daunting, we are a very private couple who strive to ‘cope’ with life events within the family unit but it became evident that we needed to seek therapeutic help for our Son and for us as a couple, in order to reconnect as a married couple and re-establish our happy family life.

At the beginning of the process both of us were nervous and reticent about sharing our story with a stranger but we found Catherine to be an authentic, honest person with integrity with whom we quickly began to establish a healthy relationship. Catherine’s ability to make us feel comfortable enabled us to be open and self-revealing, this was of the utmost importance during the initial assessment phase and of course throughout the rest of the process of our Filial Therapy. Catherine was always fully present during the sessions and had the skills to make us feel heard, understood and not judged. She is an accepting, compassionate, human person, who was always interested, warm, caring and empathetic as well as direct and responsible.

So yes, our time working with Catherine was positive, it allowed us to again be the family we had been before our ‘ground zero’!

Filial Therapy Client

 

Our experience with Essere Therapies was a really positive one, the therapist was very approachable and we (parents and son) found her amazingly easy to work with. We gained such useful insight into our son’s character and behaviours, received very valuable parenting advice and welcome reassurance. Our son really seemed to benefit from his sessions too. There were significant improvements in his behaviour at school and at home. We were very satisfied with the service we received from Essere Therapies and will recommend them to other families.

Play Therapy Client

 

I have unfortunately been through some very tough and challenging times and before meeting Helen I struggled immensely with anxiety and depression following a major traumatic experience. When I first met Helen and spoke to her I felt instantly at ease a grateful for her kind ways. Helen helped me through the toughest time of my life, she offered the support I needed and was never judgemental of my attitudes and feelings. Helen has helped me so much with issues I feel I couldn’t have coped with on my own. She has listened to all of my worries and I am truly grateful to her for everything she has done for me and, in turn, for my family. Thank you Helen from the bottom of my heart.

Counselling Client.

I really enjoyed attended the Parent Training and Support Group each week and would look forward to my afternoon with everyone. It wasn’t until I shared a room with Catherine, Helen and the other parents that I understood about the emotional well being of my family.

Throughout the course I learnt to take simple small steps that enabled me to get down to my children’s eye level, look at them and really listen to my boys for the first time. In one of the sessions I had a lightbulb moment that I honestly feel has transformed the way that I am with my children, I realised that I had always held my feelings inside bottling them up and I was teaching my children to do the same, this insight allowed me to break the pattern and they are now able to say how they feel with my help, this is so important so they don’t have the issue that I had when I was 40 years old, I am still practising saying how I feel too!

Being on the course where I didn’t feel judged, feeling on the same level as everyone else with families who shared the same problems really empowered me to raise my standards. I now experience totally different children who have big smiles on their faces when I am listening to them and experiencing their world, the only word to describe this is fantastic!

Parent Training & Support Group Participant.

Catherine has been providing therapy to my 9 year old son for about 6 months. I’ve worked with numerous child psychologists and other professionals in the past, but found Catherine to be a breath of fresh air. She really listened to the problems we were facing, and gave suggestions and explained outcomes in such a clear and simple way. Everything she said made sense, and for the first time I felt that we may be able to make some progress with our son’s difficulties.

She is very warm and friendly, and is really good fun. My son loves coming to visit her.

Not only has she provided the scheduled therapy for my son, she has also given me loads of really good advice relating to my other son and other issues.

Adoptive parent – Theraplay ® informed work client

I love Play Therapy.

10 year old child – Play Therapy client.

All I can say is thank you and that is not enough…I went through the week and I would save everything just to tell you. I have my outbursts and I know you’re always there to listen, I don’t know what I would do without you. You know my deepest darkest thoughts and still stuck by me, so thank you for going to hell and back with me. It’s hard to find someone you can trust and I found that in you and for that I am thankful. So thank you for walking down the road with me and still staying by my side, my light in the dark. You have been there, someone to listen, someone’s shoulder to cry on and for that I need to say thank you!

Young Person – Counselling Client.

I was a little dubious at first as I didn’t think that Filial Therapy could help improve my child’s behaviour. After the first session I was amazed at how much I learnt: it was the first time in a long time that I actually enjoyed playing with my child. Just by taking a step back and waiting for him to tell me what to do or asking for help, instead of me doing it without even being asked. We’ve had a few sessions within school and a few at home and it’s worked brilliantly. What I learnt in the sessions I was able to use all the time, it has made us closer as a Mother and Son and my Son’s behaviour has improved drastically which I never thought would happen. We are both a lot happier and we talk openly about our feelings and what bothers us. I can’t thanks Helen enough for all her help; she has made a real difference.

Mother to a six year old boy – Filial Therapy Client.