Therapy

Therapy can be conducted in many different ways. Mine is a holitsic Integrative approach. Being holistic is important - no point just fixing a foot if the leg is about to fall off. Each session is adapted to suit your needs - using several recognised approaches. You don't have to know them but if interested they include:

• Person-Centred - The belief that people want to improve and have the ability to improve, if correctly guided to do so. Finding out what works best for an individual's happiness, in an empathetic and gently analytical way. Renown psychotherapist Karl Rogers was a key influencer in this field, hence the related term: Rogerian therapy.
  
  
• Existential - Why are we here? What do we recognise about our existence? How much are we in touch with ourselves; physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually? Others can't know us if we don't know ourselves. Are we able to be ourselves around others?
  
  
• Visualisation and Validation - Can we see our future? Do we have a plan or a goal for where we are going? Can we truly see ourselves? How do we validate ourselves? Do we? Guided visual journeys are an additional tool.
  
  
• Neuroscience - Psychologically, we have evolved three brains in one. These operate in a hierarchy of needs and deal with existence, social and intellectual, in that order. We need all three but how healthily they work together can be impacted by trauma, stress, anxiety and our general perceptions of life.

• Transactional Analysis
  Learning to understand why we interact with each other the way we do, and how to do it better. This brings the concepts of Child, Adult and Parent behaviour modes. Which is best suited for when? How we move from one to the other in different situations and how to do it better?
  
• Psychodynamic Therapy - This has a similar approach to CBT though works better with emotions, having a more intuitive basis. While CBT looks at why do we do what we do, psychodynamic therapy looks at why do we feel the way we feel?
  
  
• Mindfulness & Somatic Awareness - When we are troubled and upset, it can be easy to get so caught up in the emotions that we lose track of why we are feeling that way. Mindfulness is a way of helping us reflect on ourselves and our troubles to gain clarity. Through clarity we can develop positive ways forward. Knowledge is power.
  
  
• Gestalt - One of my personal favourites so last but definitely not least. This is brilliant for putting situations into holistic context and helps us change how we think about them.
  
  
• Others - Separation and loss, the shadow, lifescripts, timelines, heirarchy of needs, needs analysis, guided breathing and journalling.

Have Helped With Many Issues
In alphabetical order: abuse (childhood, coercive, cultural, financial, physical, sexual), addictions (drink, drugs, gambling), anger, anxiety (financial, social, work-related), bereavement (human and pet), betrayal, career, co-dependency, confidence, depression, domestic abuse (child, coercive, cultural, financial, physical, sexual), loneliness, low self-esteem, people pleasing, procrastination, relationships (parental, marital, unmarried), self-harm, stress, trauma (including childhood) and unwanted pregnancies.

My Sessions
As mentioned, these are holistic. If someone breaks an arm we don't focus on the hand that can no longer pick things up, we deal with the break in the arm. In the same way I work to get to the root cause of your upset.

Root causes are often mired by the variety of coping mechanisms adopted but, using the broken-bone analogy: sessions are like modern X-ray machines, gently looking 'under the skin' to discover where things got broken. We then begin working through these, identifying their connections to present life and how to heal them - resolving present-day issues from the bottom up.
The result? A solid, positive foundation for you to stand on, for the rest of your life, empowering the positives and disempowering the upsets.

The content of the sessions themselves is continually adjusted, to best suit your needs in the light of what ever we discover. There can be tasks to do between bookings but this is not school - entirely your choice as to whether they do them or not. Progress is faster when you do.

Couples
Many therapists refuse to accept couples because this work can be so demanding. Personally, I enjoy the challenge, regardless of couple gender. By working positively and openly together we can achieve great results and move forward in the best way for you both. However, both must want to be there. Absolutely no point even attempting such therapy if only one partner does.

First Therapy?
If you have never been to therapy before, don't worry. Am one of those people nobody is scared of - as clients, students and even my children have told me. Am someone stranger's infants start smiling and waving at as I write in cafes - including today, while writing this.
From the very first session, you are feel free to relax, breathe and be yourself.

Aftercare
The door is never closed. You are always welcome to come back for a 'top up', if needed. One example is a client who got back in touch when expecting their first child. One session was all it took.