Maria Laskou - Profile

Hello and welcome! I am Maria, an experienced and BACP Accredited Humanistic counsellor working with adult and young adult clients 18+ on an individual basis. My practice is based at the Eaves in central Farnham, and I offer both open-ended and time-limited therapy depending on your individual needs and the complexity of the issues you may want to address.

I offer in-person sessions on Thursdays and Fridays at the Eaves. I currently have some availability for daytime and evening appointments during the week.

Areas of interest and experience:

I have a special interest in working with neurodivergent individuals and in helping them embrace their distinctive qualities, as well as create a fulfilling life aligned to their unique needs. I am also very interested in working with people who struggle with low self-confidence/low self-esteem and in enabling them to develop a greater sense of self- acceptance, and a more positive view of themselves. Additionally, I have a keen interest in helping individuals who struggle with mental health difficulties, such as depression and anxiety, as well as people who have faced many different forms of Trauma in their lives, and in enabling them to process their feelings and experiences.

I have extensive experience in working with clients who face a broad range of issues, including amongst others: Neurodiversity (ASD, ADHD), anxiety, social anxiety, stress, depression, low-mood, lack of meaning and purpose, attachment difficulties, identity issues, relationship issues, grief and loss, anticipatory grief, physical and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, low self-confidence/self-esteem, shame, life transitions, Trauma, C-PTSD, loneliness and existential concerns. During my therapeutic work, I have also successfully supported clients who have had diagnoses of bipolar disorder and personality disorders.

How I work:

I am committed to offering a warm and trusting therapeutic relationship, in which you can feel safe to explore anything that is troubling you or causing you distress. I aim to offer a space without judgement where you can express all your thoughts, feelings and concerns, and where you can explore your past and present experiences as well as the impact they may still be having on your life. I offer a secure environment in which you can examine your patterns of thinking and behaviour, your current coping mechanisms, and the way you relate to yourself and to others. I aim to help you develop a greater sense of self-awareness and make the choices that you may want to make.

In our work together, I will not be telling you what to do and I will not be trying to “fix you”, but I will provide a therapeutic relationship in which you will feel truly listened to, respected and accepted, so that you can be facilitated in trusting yourself more and in finding the right answers for yourself. I aim to help you feel empowered and gradually grow in your own unique way.

The first session:

I strongly believe that it is very important to feel comfortable with your counsellor, and that they are the right therapist for you and your unique needs. For this reason, I offer the initial 50-minute introductory session at the reduced fee of £45 as an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have, express what you would like to explore in therapy, and to get a sense of whether I am the right counsellor for you.

In this initial session, I will ask you about your hopes and expectations of counselling, about previous counselling experiences and whether they were helpful or not so helpful for you. I will also describe the way we could work together, depending on the issues you would like to address, with the hope that by the end of our initial meeting you will have a sense of whether working with me would be helpful for you.

If you want to find more about me and my practice you can visit my website: www.mlcounselling.uk

I have a wide range of experience working with individual adult and young adult clients 18+, on a long-term, open-ended basis or for an agreed period of time depending on my clients’ needs and on the complexity of the issues they wish to work on.

In addition to my private practice, and the broad range of difficulties I work with, I have had extensive experience working as a psychotherapeutic counsellor at a Mental Health charity in Guildford, providing counselling support to people who experience a broad range of both common and more severe Mental Health difficulties.