How I work
As a counselling psychologist I am trained in a number of psychological perspectives but at its core my approach is based on attending to the whole of you as you make sense of your world, offering an environment in which you can be who you are, and where you are fully seen and welcomed.
Person Centred Therapy
The Person Centred approach puts the relationship at the heart of therapy, which means offering you warmth, genuineness and acceptance as you get in touch with what you need.
By being able to explore your thoughts and feelings from a new perspective it can be possible for you to find deeper understanding, self-acceptance and clarity, a greater trust in yourself, and physical and mental integration.
My aim is to offer you a space in which you feel free and safe to explore anything you want. I won’t tend to give you specific strategies or advice, but aim to actively empower you to get closer to where you want to be. My own experience of this approach at its best involves moving towards greater self-trust and acceptance, and feeling more fully alive and at ease.
The Person-Centred Approach developed from the work of the psychologist Dr Carl Rogers. He advanced an approach to psychotherapy and counselling that, at the time, was considered extremely radical, viewing persons not as faulty or in deficit but as having the potential to grow in creative and more fully functioning directions, given the opportunity. Please have a look at the Person Centred Association website for further details.
EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing) Therapy is designed to help you process traumatic memories, and therefore alleviate the distress associated with them. It is often used to address specific incidences of trauma which might still be having an impact on your life.
During EMDR therapy, you attend to distressing memories in short bursts, while focusing on another stimulus such as tapping or side to side eye movements. EMDR tends to be quite a structured therapy, but like the person-centred approach, it draws on your ability to process your difficulties, find meaning, and move towards integration.
You stay in control of what you want to focus on and how you would like to navigate the process, which I offer in a safe, gentle and relational way.
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Focussing
Focussing is a way of tuning into the quiet, unique voice of the bodily felt sense. It is a way of accessing the wisdom of the body, which often holds some of our deepest pain and trauma; as well as ways to find meaning in, and resolving these.
As such, it prioritises bodily over cognitive understanding. It involves compassionately listening to our bodily felt experiences, without judgement, making room for understanding and change.
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CBT
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT looks at how our beliefs and behaviour can change how we feel. It helps break down what can seem like overwhelming problems into smaller chunks, looking at the connection between our thoughts, feelings, the situations we are in and how we act.
A particular focus is on addressing negative cycles of thought, behaviour and beliefs in the present, identifying these, and looking at alternative possibilities. It can help free us from the fog of negative cycles.
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