About I. C. Counselling

Hello I am Ingrid Coombs. I am I. C. Counselling  

My journey into counselling started as the result of being the victim of a hit and run on 29th April 2002.

After 3 years of believing I could cope with what had happened to me, I finally accepted that actually I couldn’t cope at all and needed professional help. I knew I was finally ready to start dealing with my situation rather than just coping with it. Hence my journey began.

I thought my experience was going to be straight forward and I would speak with my counsellor about the shock of the event and the physical pain, but how wrong I was. The topics of discussion ranged from “why me?” to “what if?, from childhood dreams to what was expected of me,  and I’m fed up of being “The Victim”, to name just a few.

Over the years I have worked with four separate counsellors at different stages of my journey to “put to bed” my life “traumas” and each one played a different roll. However, without a shadow of a doubt they all helped me to make life changing decisions, find the answers I was looking for, but above all equipped me with the life- long skills to develop into the person I am today…a very much happier one!

I had been working with counsellors for the best part of four years, on and off, before I decided to train to become one myself. I began that journey in 2009, qualified in 2013 and have been in practice ever since. 

For me being a Counsellor is an extremely rewarding job on many counts, but above all, it is about helping others to help themselves move closer to the happier, more positive lives they crave. I work with people to overcome and deal with their life traumas. I have helped people deal with potential marriage break downs in addition to supporting young adults who have been the victims of divorce. I have engaged with those who have been subjected to  Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and have supported those who have been the victims of neglect, abandonment and rape. I have journeyed with many who are in recovery from alcohol and substance addiction and I have walked along side survivors of cancer.  

Trauma comes in many guises and it is only when we allow ourselves to open up and ask for help that we can begin to really deal with what lies beneath. Without the support and help I received from my counsellors I’m not quite sure where I would be today.

In addition to having my own private practice I work for a counselling charity in Portsmouth and I am a mentor at a local secondary school working with teenagers.

And finally I am a keen runner simply because now I can!