Confidential Counselling for adults in Chatteris and Cambridgeshire
Michelle Cobb Counselling
My journey to becoming a counsellor.
My journey towards becoming a counsellor began through my own experience of struggling to cope with daily life. I remember feeling lost and distressed at times, and reaching a point where I knew something needed to change.
I began my own personal therapy several years before I started my counselling training, and remained in therapy throughout much of that journey. It wasn't always easy. There were things I needed to face, understand and make sense of, and change didn't happen overnight.
But my experience of counselling was also deeply meaningful and transformative. Together with my therapist, we built a relationship where I felt safe enough to be myself — where I could begin to experience that I was good enough simply for being me.
That relationship gave me the space to look more closely at how I had become the person sitting there at that time. I became more aware of how my past experiences had shaped my outlook, my behaviours and the way I understood myself and the world around me.
I also began to recognise how much of my life I had been living on automatic pilot, without fully realising that I had choices and other possibilities available to me if I gave myself the time and space to notice them.
From hospitality to counselling
Before training as a counsellor, I spent many years working in the hospitality industry. It may seem a long way from counselling, but those years are an important part of my story.
Hospitality was fast-paced, demanding and sometimes challenging. It also taught me a great deal about people. I saw the pressures that people carried alongside everyday life — family difficulties, relationships, loss, change, celebrations and difficult times. I learned that there is often much more going on beneath the surface than we can see.
I didn't begin my counselling journey from a place of certainty or knowing exactly where life would take me. In many ways, I began from a place of uncertainty and a need to find a different way for myself.
Looking back, I can see that the path wasn't as straightforward as it might appear now. There was a lot I didn't know, and there were times when I doubted myself.
But I did it.
That matters to me.
It reminds me that we don't always need to know exactly where we're going before we take the next step.
Sometimes we don't know what may be round the next corner. And taking the first step is the bravest step of all.
Knowing what it feels like to be the client
Having sat on the client side myself, I understand how daunting taking that first step towards counselling can feel.
There can be apprehension, uncertainty or even fear about reaching out or walking through my door for the first time. I know that feeling of wondering what you will say, whether you will be understood and what might happen once you begin to open things up.
I will greet you in a warm and genuine way, with respect for wherever you are in your journey. You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what you need or where things will lead.
What I believe
Over the years, I've come to believe something very simple but very important: people are remarkably resilient.
Life can sometimes leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves through painful experiences, loss, relationships or circumstances beyond our control. Yet I also believe that change is possible.
Given the right conditions — a relationship built on warmth, acceptance and understanding — we can begin to reconnect with ourselves, trust our own voice again and move towards a life that feels more authentic.
It isn't always easy, and it rarely happens overnight. But I have seen, both through my own experience and through my work with others, that hope can grow, even when it feels almost lost.
Sometimes we don't need to see the whole path. We just need enough safety and space to discover what might be possible.
