Welcome
LET'S TALK Private counselling: online and face to face
PENTIMENTO COUNSELLING
WHY PENTIMENTO?
VANESSA HAYNES MBACP
Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Integrative Counselling Dip.
I am a person-centred, psychodynamic exploratory counsellor therapist offering private counselling online and face to face. I have spent several years working in counselling agencies in Belfast and Downpatrick, Northern Ireland.
I work with adult clients on either a long or short term basis. I work with adult survivors of childhood trauma, often described as adverse childhood experiences. I am also hearing-impairment aware. Hearing loss can come with feelings of shame and isolation – and can significantly impact our ability to connect.
My private practice is based in Killyleagh where I offer in-person, face to face counselling. I also offer online sessions and Walk and Talk in the Downpatrick area. Please contact me for further details.
The Therapeutic Approach
pen· ti· men· to | \ ˌpen-tə-ˈmen- (ˌ)tō \ plural pentimenti \ ˌpen- tə- ˈmen- (ˌ)tē \ Definition of pentimento : a reappearance in a painting of an original drawn or painted element which was eventually painted over by the artist.
Welcome!
I've always loved the word pentimento. It's an unmistakably Italian word and feels pleasing to say. More than that, pentimento reveals layers: the reworking and hidden ideas and meanings underneath the finished painting.
We may not be works of art as such but we are always in progress, changing, shaping and reworking ourselves.
Our sense of self, the world, and our relationships, can be profoundly informed by early life experiences,even if those early life experiences, like the pentimento painting, are hidden from view.
We all experience difficulties in life and not all of those challenges will be hidden from us. If you are looking at this page, you are looking to find a therapist and perhaps struggling to manage something on your own. Perhaps you can't quite put your finger on what that is or maybe the problem is all too clear, and too pressing, to manage by yourself.
A good counselling relationship is about creating a neutral space where you can safely explore the challenges you are facing without judgement. Whether you are experiencing anxiety or depression; struggling with loss or challenging relationships; living with adverse childhood experiences (ACES) or feeling a loss of purpose or self, together we can explore those blocks in the road and together discover a way through them.
Counselling can bring us relief, it can stop us feeling alone. It can bring us into the moment or bring us face to face with our past. You may discover something new about yourself or a new way of looking at the problems you are facing but ultimately, it will be you who decides the journey we will travel on together.
The first step is to reach out and have an initial chat, which can be on the phone or via Zoom . As Martin Luther King Jnr once said “Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.”
How does that sound to you?