Family and Couples Counsellor Dana Archer
Hello and welcome. I’mFamily and Couples Counsellor Dana Archer. In my office and online, I offer counselling on family communication, couple relationships, parenting and personal difficulties. Rather than rushing to interpret, I care about unfolding your story together and noticing the patterns that repeat in your relationships.
Why Dana Archer
Every family has its own language and its own history. That’s why I don’t apply a ready-made programme; in the first session we set up a working framework together and talk openly about which topics we’ll look at and in what order.
If you don’t know where to start, that’s completely normal. A first conversation is enough to take the first step; we decide on the rest together.
Family and couples counsellor Dana Archer offers counselling on family communication, couple relationships, parenting and personal difficulties. Sessions take place face to face in the office or online, with the same structure, length and confidentiality in both.
The aim is not to offer ready-made solutions but to bring the family’s own strengths to light and make room to try a new way where things are stuck.
After a degree in psychological counselling and guidance, Dana Archer completed a family counselling certificate and then a three-year advanced training based on systemic and relational approaches.
Throughout the training she received regular supervision and continued her own personal work. In the same period she completed a two-year advanced programme in couple and parent counselling.
Dana Archer works with individuals, couples and families, using a systemic view that sees a person within their web of relationships rather than alone.
Areas of work include family communication, recurring conflict in couples, parent-child relationships, life transitions and loss. Counselling is not a diagnosis or treatment; where medical support is needed, a referral is made.
The topics Dana Archer works on most: times when family communication gets stuck, couples returning to the same argument again and again, differences in parenting styles and adjusting to major life changes.
Hello, I’m Family and Couples Counsellor Dana Archer. I work with families, couples and individuals in my office and online. In sessions I care about creating a space where no one is declared right or wrong and everyone can speak for themselves. It wouldn’t be honest to say at the start how long the process will take, but by the end of the first session we agree together on how we will work.
Systemic Family Counselling: a way of working that looks at a person not alone but within their web of relationships. Family, friendships and partner relationships are considered together to make sense of a person’s reactions. The aim is not to find who is at fault but to make the repeating pattern visible.
In this approach the goal is to build ground where family members truly hear each other, making conflict something that can be talked about rather than suppressed.
Family counselling starts from the idea that difficulties often come not from one person but from the patterns a family builds together.
What We Can Work On Together
Family Communication
Topics such as arguments that keep returning to the same point, things that can’t be talked about, tension building in the parent-child relationship and a sense of drifting apart at home.Couple and Marriage RelationshipsTopics such as communication breakdown, shaken trust, emotional distance, sharing responsibilities, and talking through separation or starting again.Personal DifficultiesTogether we look at how intense stress, anxiety, anger, grief and major life transitions show up in your relationships and how you can cope with them.Parenting and the Parent-Child RelationshipWe work on a shared language around sibling jealousy, setting boundaries, screen time, the distance that comes with adolescence and differences between parents.
What Is Systemic Family Counselling and What Does It Cover?
It looks at the family not as a set of separate individuals but as a whole whose members affect each other. When one person changes, the others often shift too. In sessions family members and the counsellor sit at the same table, and we build a setting where everyone can speak for themselves and listen without interrupting. The goal is to make communication possible again without ignoring the family bond.
This work suits every kind of family: nuclear, extended, single-parent, adoptive or blended. Alongside conflict, communication breakdowns, separation, loss and grief, any topic on the family’s mind can be explored.
Couples Counselling
Couples counselling is about exploring together the pattern that makes two people return to the same argument again and again. The aim is not to decide who is right but to find ways to hear each other and manage disagreement.
Parent Counselling
Parent counselling is a space where parents can talk about the difficulties in their relationship with their children. The aim is a shared approach between parents on boundaries, rules, screen time, school and adolescence.
Individual Counselling
Everyone can struggle at some point in life, and it often shows in both daily routine and relationships. In individual sessions a person can look at their own story from a little distance, with the counsellor alongside.
Individual counselling is work done together with a counsellor to notice one’s patterns of feeling, thinking and behaviour and to build awareness of one’s own process.
This work covers topics such as getting to know yourself better, widening ways of coping with stress and anxiety, managing social relationships and building self-awareness. The process differs from person to person and no session promises a particular outcome.
Online Sessions
Alongside face-to-face sessions, we can also plan online sessions for people living elsewhere
Education and Training
Every client’s story is unique, and we build the working framework around that story together.
Psychological Counselling and Guidance (Degree)
Four-year degree programme
I completed a four-year degree in psychological counselling and guidance, which laid the foundation of the interviewing skills and ethical framework needed to work with individuals and families.
Family Counselling Certificate Programme
450-hour practical programme
I completed a practical certificate programme on reading family dynamics, managing sessions and ethical principles, with a strong focus on case studies and role play.
Systemic and Relational Approach Training
Advanced training programme
I completed a three-year training based on systemic and relational approaches, which taught me to see a person within their web of relationships and to lead family sessions.
Couple and Parent Counselling Programme
Advanced training programme
I completed a two-year programme in leading couples sessions and parent counselling, focused on working through couples’ recurring conflict patterns together.
Regular Supervision and Personal Work
Supervision
I work under regular supervision and continue my own personal work without a break. It is the most practical way to protect the quality of the relationship with clients.
Client Feedback
Where clients describe the process in their own words
I started on a friend’s recommendation. In the first session, what helped most was being listened to without interruption. It took a few sessions to notice where I was getting stuck, but we always talked openly about what we were doing. If someone is hesitant to go, I’d tell them the first step is easier than they think. 🌹
A.
My partner and I had been going round the same argument for a long time. Nobody took sides in the sessions; we looked at what each of us said and how. We still disagree, but now we can keep talking without stopping halfway. That alone is a big difference for us.
H.
We applied for couples sessions and honestly, at first I didn’t know what to expect. Instead of quick interpretations, there were questions, and we were given room to find our own answers. The most valuable thing for us was having a place to talk about things we couldn’t talk about at home.
M.
Frequently Asked Questions
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