How I work
As a counselling psychologist, I use a variety of theories (or therapeutic modalities) to facilitate a deep exploration of your feelings in a safe, confidential and non-judgmental place. I am able to work either long or short term with clients. It’s not unusual to start therapy thinking you’ll only need a few sessions but then discover that you value the time to introspect and want to carry on for longer. You may want open-ended therapy where you have time to deeply explore your past, your childhood and the reasons why you feel the way you do. Or you may just want some sessions to deal with a specific issue – this is all ok, and we will negotiate and discuss this from the start.
The different therapeutic modalities I use can facilitate long or short-term work – I will outline some of them briefly below:
Compassion-focused therapy (CFT)
Helps to promote compassion towards ourselves and others, for emotional healing and well-being. With its foundations in areas such as neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, this therapy can help people who struggle with shame and self-criticism.
Acceptance & commitment therapy
Invites people to make room for or open up to (accepting) difficult thoughts and feelings without necessarily challenging them, whilst committing to doing what matters, or taking values-based action. This is an evidence-based approach that uses mindfulness and acceptance in various ways.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Aims to challenge and change the way you think (cognitions) and what you do (behaviours). CBT uses practical solutions to your present-day problems and might include homework tasks paper-based exercises in sessions.
Psychodynamic therapy
Emphasises the importance of the past, especially early childhood, to enable clients to understand how their experiences shape current feelings, thoughts and behaviours. There is a focus on making our unconscious processes conscious as we get to know ourselves better.
Depending on how you would like to work, or for how long, I am likely to integrate a combination of some of the above modalities. A helpful way of thinking about integrating therapy can be to see it as a two-pronged approach. We can ‘go back’ and explore your past, have a look at what unconscious patterns are being repeated, discover what attachment style you are using and where that comes from, so that in the present day you can make choices that are more aligned to your values. Therapy can help you to understand why you do what you do, whilst helping you to do something different.
The most important thing is that you feel comfortable and safe with me as your therapist and that we have a strong therapeutic relationship. When it comes to finding a therapist, I would always recommend that you make enquiries with a few different practitioners to find the right person for you. It is for this reason I offer a free initial consultation by phone. This gives us the chance to talk and decide whether we are best suited to continue working together.
