Therapy Services and Therapeutic Approach

I provide a compassionate approach to therapy. I appreciate that seeking help for a mental health condition can be difficult for many reasons and so I endeavour to provide all of my clients with a safe space to talk about the issues that are troubling them, whatever these are. Read about client’s experiences of working with me here.

If you are seeking help for an emotional problem, I will help you by listening to your story without judgement and together we can make sense of what has happened to you and why, perhaps, you are struggling to restore your emotional wellbeing. After we have a better understanding of what has brought you to therapy, we can develop a treatment plan to remedy the difficulties you are having and help you to get back to living a meaningful life.

I use a range of therapeutic approaches which include Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Brief Solution Focused Therapy (BSFT), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Psychodynamic Therapy. We can discuss which approach might be the best fit for you.

As a Clinical Psychologist I am trained to treat a wide range of mental health conditions. Even if the symptoms you’re experiencing have not been officially diagnosed, I can still help. Clinical Psychologists don’t always need a diagnosis to treat someone because our understanding of the problem informs the treatment and there are many factors that we take into account in developing this understanding. For example, key factors might include significant life experiences, stress, or trauma but it is not just these experiences per se, but an your response to these experiences that can have an impact on you and how you cope. An understanding of what has happened to you, how you have coped and the effectiveness of your coping is what we term a ‘psychological formulation’ and it is as unique as you are, which is why treatment is bespoke to your needs and what you want to get out of therapy.

Sometimes people seek help from a therapist even when they aren’t quite sure what is troubling them. I offer brief consultation sessions (which are free) so please do get in touch if you wish to talk about therapy to see if I am the right person to help you.

Common Conditions

I often see clients presenting with the following difficulties:

• Anxiety (including anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder)

• Work-related stress

• Low confidence

• Depression or low mood

• Trauma - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex trauma

• Medically Unexplained Symptoms/ somatic or functional presentations

• Mood issues related to a physical health condition or long term condition e.g. cancer, gastroenterological disorders, diabetes, kidney disease, persistent pain - see below for more details.

Long Term Conditions

Living with a physical illness or chronic condition can be challenging on an emotional level. Being diagnosed with a long-term condition such as persistent pain, kidney disease or diabetes for example, may require significant lifestyle changes and adaptations to be made. This might include compliance with challenging treatment regimes, dealing with side-effects to medication. Living with a long term condition might also mean adjusting to a change in roles and responsibilities at home or at work and perhaps even coming to terms with losses felt in this context. I can help here by compassionately listening to the challenges faced by someone who is living with or caring for someone with a long term condition and together we can think about what kind of intervention might be most helpful moving forwards.

Medically Unexplained Conditions and Persistent Pain

The human body is an amazing machine. We are built with a physical structure which operates on a fine balance of chemicals (e.g. hormones), thinking processes (cognition), and messages relayed between our physical and emotional parts (neurons). When you have symptoms that cannot be explained by a scan or medical test, sometimes these symptoms might be referred to as ‘medically unexplained’ or ‘somatic’ or ‘functional’. Common medically unexplained symptoms include irritable bowel syndrome, migraines and persistent pain. Whilst these conditions might be medically unexplained, I like to think of them as perhaps functionally explained i.e. that perhaps there is a problem somewhere within the complexity of the human mind and body that might offer an explanation for these symptoms - rather like a problem with the software instead of a problem with the hardware. When symptoms are unexplained it can sometimes feel as though people are ‘faking’ or lead people to think that they not believed. The feelings this can produce might even make symptoms worse.

You might have already seen lots of professionals and still be left feeling uncertain about your symptoms and prognosis. You might have tried lots of different medications, had lots of scans and tests and still be no closer to a resolution you’re happy with. You might just want to gain a non-medical perspective on your symptoms. If any of this sounds familiar and if you want to think about a psychological approach to your symptoms then please do get in touch with me.

Working with medically unexplained symptoms is an area of particular interest to me. I am keen to help people to look at their symptoms in a different way which might include exploring past stressors or traumas where relevant or perhaps work towards creating a rich, full and meaningful life in spite of the symptoms.