Dr Petra Hawker

When I first went to see Petra I was extremely nervous. I had never entertained the idea of counselling, until I had reached the point of desperation. She put me at ease almost immediately due to her high level of understanding, empathy and compassion. I grew to understand myself, and the reasons behind my behaviour, which was a revelation. With her guidance and support, and the change in my behaviour and understanding, I slowly was able to repair the damage to my twenty year marriage. I now have a more expansive view of life, and have learnt so much. My wife has been quite taken aback at the change in me and we are now happier than ever. I would recommend Petra to any man who finds himself in a similar situation. She has an uncanny knack of truly understanding a male point of veiw.

When I first met Petra I had reached the lowest point in my life. Two weeks before Christmas, the man who was the love of my life had left me for another woman. I was devastated, and felt utterly rejected, and consequently my self esteem and confidence was shattered. It was a brutal and abrupt ending. Petra very quickly offered genuine compassion and comfort, and soon identified that I had deep insecurities that need to be addressed before I could not only move on and recover but also to become a stronger person than ever before. I will be grateful to Petra for the rest of my life, and am now grateful for the painful events which ultimately led me to meeting her. She has dealt with issues that needed to be addressed from 20 years ago, resulting in me feeling empowered, positive and above all, has given me back my self-esteem. Even my relationship with my mother has totally changed, and she too keeps reminding me that it is due to the work that Petra has done with me. I have been able to move on and embrace life, and most importantly know and acknowledge my own self worth. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I always looked forward to my sessions with Petra, it was like being able to talk to a very wise, perceptive and knowledgeable friend, who would be able to guide me out of any tangled psychological mess I'd found myself in! She was particularly perceptive and insightful when it came to my relationship with my then fiancé (and now husband). As with every relationship, no matter how much you love someone, you will have times where you simply don't understand the other person's reasoning or behavior, and you feel hurt and let down. Petra was incredibly adept at helping me understand both the male and female psyche, which meant I became much more accepting and tolerant of our differences. Her insight and empathy also helped me to put any problems I had in my relationship into proportion, and to see that they were often solvable with a simple change in attitude and understanding. I not only began to understand my husband-to-be better, I was also beginning to understand myself. Petra effectively gave me a road down which to walk, when, before, all I could see were walls!

The first time I heard a recording of Petra's voice, I knew she was the person I needed to meet to help me deal with my anger, which was destroying my marriage. I'm a typical macho man, and counselling was a last resort. My wife was going to divorce me, due to my violent behaviour. Counselling was a difficult and revealing process for me; my past experiences had a devastating impact on me, but with Petra's depth of understanding and support, the end result was better than I could have ever imagined..We fell in love all over again, and my children were no longer afraid of my terrible moods. My life has changed; it's as simple as that