Our Christian Ethos
The original vision of New Dawn counselling Centre was to provide a place of healing within the local community. Where hurting, vulnerable and troubled people could find the best possible help on offer from qualified counsellors.
These professionals were willing to work with people’s resulting emotional, psychological or spiritual difficulties, regardless of their faith or beliefs or indeed no faith.
Members of New Dawn respect the teachings and values exemplified by the life of Jesus Christ. In doing so, they acknowledge the ‘core conditions’ of the founding father of person-centred counselling, Carl Rogers, namely to offer everyone seeking counselling:
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Unconditional positive regard - showing respect from a non-judgemental stance for the person and the issues they bring to therapy.
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Congruence - being real, truthful and present with the person when engaging with the range of difficult issues confronting them.
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Empathy - seeking to be as understanding and feeling as possible of the person and their situation.
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New Dawn counsellors, therefore endeavour to meet the individual where they are emotionally, psychologically or spiritually. So as to work with their presented issues and work towards the best possible outcome for that person.
In doing so, our counsellors seek to demonstrate a maturity of character that does not seek to evangelise or attempt in any way to convert the individual to the Christian faith or indeed any other faith.
However we are very aware that some people come to counselling with unfulfilled needs or spiritual voids in their lives. If it is there person’s choice to bring their faith, belief systems or indeed any spiritual issues into counselling, then our counsellors are willing to explore these with them.
In having an understanding of the spiritual dimension that the person’s issues can sometimes contain, our counsellors remain respectful of all beliefs and values that people may hold.
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