Why the butterfly?
The Wisdom of the Butterfly
A story of hope, resilience and transformation and the mystery of imaginal discs.
The butterfly reminds us you can go through a great deal of darkness and still become something beautiful.
The butterfly starts out as a grub – a humble caterpillar, living a simple life eating and growing until it can no longer sustain itself in its current form. So it shuts down and withdraws, its body hardening into a protective chrysalis and the profound transformation begins…
Everything inside the chrysalis disintegrates, it dissolves into a sort of goopy soup. Everything disappears except bits of its brain and nervous system and something called imaginal discs. These discs have been hidden away inside the caterpillar waiting for the crisis of overeating, fatigue and breakdown to trigger the remarkable transformation.
These imaginal discs carry the genetic blueprint to build the structures of the butterfly, the hope for the future, the hidden potential. They have been there all along, remaining dormant until activated in the darkness and the goop, using the nutrients from the caterpillars disintegrated old life to grow and form the new ways of being. Everything it has known changes. New beginnings. New possibilities. New adventures.
Eventually, the butterfly emerges ready to take flight!
Renewed. Transformed. Overcomer of great difficulty. Champion of change.
Even in our darkest days, we all carry hidden potential and strength – our “imaginal discs”. The resilience born of overcoming and surviving, enables us to embrace change and experience remarkable transformation.
What we are about
Merrylands Counselling is a team of qualified psychologists and counsellors, headed by our Director, Colleen Hirst. We specialise in providing psychological services and counselling to individuals, couples and families.
Did you know that nearly half of all Australians will suffer with a mental illness at some point I their life? Anxiety is the most common type of mental illness in Australia (and in the world, in fact!), followed by depression and then alcohol and drug abuse. There are a lot more than these three though. Some of us experience persistent symptoms, while for other people the symptoms come and go. You can even just experience symptoms once – a single episode.
We also know that everyday life problems such as workplace stress, family and relationship matters, coping with illness or crisis can affect our quality of life. Past and present issues can get in the way of living well. Grief, guilt and regrets can cloud our ability to see the way forward. Worry, self-doubt and fear can cripple our ability to think clearly.
Anything that compromises how we think or feel or experience life can be pretty frightening or overwhelming.
One thing we know for sure is that when life gets tough, it helps to have someone to talk to. It was John Donne who wrote “No man is an island”.
Life can be very difficult. You don’t have to face these difficulties alone.
We are here to offer support in the form of psychological intervention and counselling. This is about listening and hearing what the real issues are for you and then working together to find solutions, clear your thinking and ease the turmoil. We will equip you with new strategies and insights to restore hope and well-being and enable you to live well and manage life.
Our team are all fully accredited, experienced professionals, working within a strength-based framework, using evidenced based practice such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), Interpersonal Therapy, Schema Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
As well as our psychology counselling services, we also offer supervision, consultation and training for organisations and community groups.
OUR MISSION
is to relieve suffering and restore hope and well-being
OUR AIM
is to enable you to live well, to think clearly and to feel alive
OUR COMMITMENT
is to provide these services at the highest quality and at an affordable price
Contact Us
If you are interested in the type of care we can provide, please get in contact, and we can find the practitioner best suited to your needs.
If you are unsure what needs you have and just want a chat, that's okay, too! We are here to help you discover what might work best for you.
All chats and submissions are confidential.