WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING AND THERAPY

As a Counselling Psychologist and Integrative Psychotherapist, I bring together a number of complementary approaches to help you become more aware of what is going on both in and around you. I focus on how your experiences in the present reflect patterns from your past – and together we will explore how your body, emotions and behavioural patterns are inter-related.

This will help you to learn more about yourself so you can resolve and move on from issues that are holding you back.

COMMON PRESENTING ISSUES

Anxiety
Depression
Disordered eating
Stress.
Relationship issues
Grief
Self-esteem and confidence
Addictions
Life transitions
PTSD
Parenting issues
Bullying
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Phobias
Panic disorder
Chronic illnesses eg ME/Chronic Fatigue
Chronic pain and migraines
Processing life-changing diagnoses

BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS

I offer tailor-made programmes that help you to integrate mindfulness into your life and maximize the benefits, such as:

Reduced stress – including the “fight or flight” response
Increased learning, memory and problem solving functions
Improved ability to mange emotions
Positive impact on health including reduced blood pressure and improved sleep
Better pain management
Regulation of appetite

Previous clients have found mindfulness sessions beneficial for: challenges with parenting, workplace stress, relationship problems, weight loss, eating disorders, chronic health conditions, depression and anxiety.

INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS (IFS)

Internal family systems, or IFS, is a type of therapy that believes we are all made up of several parts or

sub-personalities. It was created by Richard Schwartz, a family therapist, who came up with the idea of conceptualising the mind like an inner family.

Most people can think of a time when they were aware of different parts of themselves. For example, we might think ‘Part of me wants to leave my job and another part thinks I should stay’ or ‘On the one hand I want to say ‘no’ but on the other, I feel I have to say ‘yes’.

The good news is that these internal parts, or roles, are not set in stone so they can change with time and work.

The goal of IFS therapy is to become aware of and to get to know our own parts and to achieve balance within our internal system, whilst achieving a stronger relationship with our true Self.

IFS is a non-pathologizing way of working – as captured by the phrase ‘there are no bad parts’. The behaviours or sides of ourselves that can be hard to face up to can therefore be worked on with more compassion and curiosity.

EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSION (EMDR)

EMDR is a form of psychotherapy that helps to heal trauma by processing old, stuck memories.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements or tapping) to reduce levels of psychological distress. EMDR is most commonly used to treat PTSD but can also significantly help to treat anxiety, depression, complex PTSD and attachment trauma, phobias and complex grief.

EMDR couples very well with IFS as a relational and long-term solution to many mental health problems.

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY (CBT)

CBT works by challenging unhelpful patterns of thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. It focuses on the present rather than past behaviours or impact of trauma. CBT can couple well with other forms of psychotherapy that can address more deep-seated psychological issues.