Mo Dixon is an Integrative Counsellor and Coach at the Cherry Tree Therapy Centre in Buckhurst Hill. She has a background in academic psychology and is also a registered career coach. Being dual-trained in counselling and coaching allows flexibility to integrate and adapt these elements according to what you need to achieve. She likes to work interactively with warmth, humour, curiosity and compassion to allow your self-exploration to be as gentle or challenging as you need.

Mo Dixon specialises in working with people who are experiencing Midlife Transitions / Crises and Work & Career Counselling.

Midlife transitions / Crises

The middle of our lives, from approximately 30-60 years old, can bring a range of new challenges, roles and responsibilities. Many people get to a stage where their sense of identity has shifted and they want to re-evaluate who they are now. There is often a sense of loss associated with these transitions – a loss of options, youth, fertility and even people. You could be living with high levels of anxiety, anger, apathy or discontentment. These feelings may have arrived slowly – a growing awareness that your old life doesn’t seem to fit very well any more.  Or, perhaps they were triggered by external events like some of those outlined below:

• a health crisis may push you to reassess your lifestyle and become more aware of your own mortality.
• a major birthday (e.g. 30 or 50) or maybe an anniversary more significant to you (reaching the age at which your mother died)
• fertility – the awareness of the end of fertility can bring a sense of focus or urgency around family planning decisions
• children –your ever-changing parental role as your child navigates different stages of childhood, including leaving home
• the loss of fertility and the psychological and physiological challenges and opportunities around the menopause
• parents –stepping into a caring role as your parents age or are unwell whilst simultaneously managing other work and life commitments.
• bereavement – loss of family or friends – how to make sense of and adapt to the inevitable changes that death brings
• relationships – this includes bigger events such as separation, divorce or death of a partner. It can also mean a re-evaluation of who you are and what you want from a partner in this new phase of life.

 

Navigating these changes can be deeply uncomfortable and can make you feel lost, stuck and out of control. Confidence and self-esteem issues can arise when we have lost sight of who we are and what we want. These crises are also an opportunity for reflection which can allow a more purposeful life that is aligned with who you are now

Midlife counselling can help you to look compassionately and honestly at who you are and how you came to be here. It can help you explore questions around identity, purpose, meaning and self-worth so that you have a clearer idea of who you are now. With this clarity comes a strength that can be used to navigate relationships in a more authentic way.

Work and Career Counselling

Work tends to take up a large proportion of our lives, so issues at work can have a big impact on our sense of self-worth. Often our behaviours and thought patterns play out at work and can leave us feeling unempowered, out of our depth, lacking in confidence or losing our temper. Listed below are some of the issues that you may have come across in your work life:

• managing conflict and difficult work relationships
• difficulty managing a good work/life balance
• stressed at work perhaps leading to burnout
• lacking confidence and difficulty in being assertive
• feeling out of your depth/imposter syndrome
• bullying in the workplace
• perfectionism and overwhelm

Working therapeutically to explore where the origins of some of these feelings and behaviours can really help to clarify what’s going on for you. Understanding your own story and looking at the impact in a work environment can unlock different opportunities and ways of seeing things.

 

Qualifications

• Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Counselling and Coaching
• Postgraduate Certificate in Career Coaching and Counselling
• PhD Psychology
• BSc (Hons) Psychology

Professional Memberships

• Registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
• Registered member of the Career Development Institute (CDI)