Margot Mansell

I have been a client of Margot for many years now, she goes above and Beyond for her clients! And often if needed will go over the allocated time of the appointment if she feels you need it. She doesn’t just listen she teaches you life long coping mechanisms to deal with life’s challenges. The main deterrence I feel with Margot is your not just a number she actually really does care. Would highly recommend!

Margo is a lovely person and if you are after a friend-like dynamic where you have a fun rant about people in your life and she can make blind assumptions about them and “tell you what you want to hear” then she might be the right person for you. She claims to be “person centred” and specifically said on our introductory phone call that “the session is about you, not about me”. However, she spent quite a lot of time talking, making assumptions about me and the people in my life, even talking about herself (without bringing it back to me) and outright giving me advice. This is exactly the opposite of “person centred” counselling which I know from some of my studies. At first I found her pretty validating of what I was going through but I started to realise she wasn’t really holding the space for me to work things through and come to my own conclusions and healing. The straw that broke the camels back was having her talk at me, teetering forward on the edge of her chair toward me in what can only be described as excitement at getting to give me advice (I felt like she was giving advice to her younger self?). The irony was she was lecturing me on how I should NOT give advice to friends and just asking open questions - exactly what a counsellor should do. I pointed this out as I felt really shut down and she said “Oh I just did to you what you did to your friend!” which was a very inappropriate judgement and her voicing that realisation made me feel like it was a test to teach me a lesson about how my friend might’ve felt when I gave advice. No counselling client should feel that way.

I tried to address some of these issues with Margo at the end of our third and final session but I didn’t feel a true apology or much self awareness from her and I felt the damage was already done. It’s so important to have trust in the therapeutic relationship otherwise it won’t be therapeutic. So I moved on and found a much better counsellor who can hold that space for me. I hope, whoever you are, you are able to do the same.

I have had the pleasure of working with Margot through addiction and grieve issues - I would have to say the most important thing she gifted me within our sessions was the gift of "anger" I was challenged by her words to step away from my comfort zone and "grow"beyond what I imagined was possible - I did not think I would ever let go of my past hurt - but I was wrong - if you are serious about moving FORWARD from where you are at this moment - then call her. She will push your buttons and she will challenge yr beliefs about who you are and yr direction will alter - I am grateful I found her name in the yellow pages and made the call.