Therapy
During the initial consultation appointment, I will ask you about the difficulties you are experiencing now, relevant information about your life and history, and about your goals for therapy. Some people are unsure about their goals at first, and I can help you to think about this as part of an initial appointment. We will then develop a treatment plan together, agreeing the way we will work together, as well as the frequency and number of sessions that is likely to be most helpful. We will review our plans together regularly to ensure that you are getting what you would like from the therapy, and we can adjust how we work as required.
As a clinical psychologist I can draw upon a range of therapeutic approaches to help you to address your goals, and have undertaken additional training to enhance my practice. These may include Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help you to understand and respond more effectively to your current difficulties, trauma-focused therapy such as Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), or taking an approach that helps you to explore patterns in how you relate to others, and to your own experiences, including drawing on cognitive analytic and attachment frameworks. Therapy will often include aspects of developing self-compassion and mindfulness techniques, as well as drawing upon models of coping and adjustment.
Please see below for more details about ACT and EMDR. I can provide more details about these, or other aspects of therapy on request.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
As it's name suggests, the main aims of ACT are about accepting what you are not able to control, and committing to acting in ways that improve your life and ensure that your life is as full and meaningful as possible.
ACT involves learning skills to deal with painful feelings and thoughts effectively to reduce the power that they may currently have. It also helps you to clarify the most important values in your life, and to use this understanding to ensure you are working towards living in the best way for you.
ACT has been used effectively to help people with a wide range of psychological difficulties include stress, anxiety, and depression. It can be useful in helping people to manage medical conditions including pain and long term chronic illness.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to recover from difficulties that have been triggered by disturbing life experiences. It allows the brain to reprocess painful memories in order to reduce the distress and suffering associated with them. EMDR is known for treating Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and can also help with many other mental health difficulties.