Therapies

My approach to therapy as a clinical psychologist is person-centred, which means I am able to draw on a range of evidence-based therapy models to provide support that is tailored to a person’s individual needs.  I have extensive experience of offering mindfulness and compassion based therapies to support people with a range of psychological difficulties. We would talk in our initial session(s) about what approach would be best suited to meet your needs, but often an integrative (combined) approach is helpful.  Many of the resources, skills and insights gained in therapy will then become part of your ‘toolkit’, so that you can continue to use and benefit from them beyond the end of sessions. Please find information below about the evidence-based therapies that inform my work and links to further websites.

CFT is a way of working with shame, self-criticism or self-loathing that can be part of emotional difficulties like depression and anxiety.  It helps us to relate to ourselves and others with compassion, and draws on evidence from evolutionary biology, Buddhist psychology, social psychology and neuroscience.  Important parts of this therapeutic approach include developing a compassionate understanding of our difficulties, learning mindfulness skills and building our compassionate resources through imagery exercises.  Often we associate compassion with qualities such as kindness, but also compassion can be courageous and help us to face challenging situations, as well as help us to connect with our own inner wisdom to know what we need.
MBCT teaches people how to become mindful, which means learning to be aware of our present moment experience, and to meet this with kindness. Mindfulness can support us to open to the good that is around us and also to choose more consciously how we want to respond to our experiences.  This is especially helpful for working wisely with difficulties such as depression or anxiety. MBCT is often taught in a group course, but can also be offered as an important part of individual therapy.  MBCT for cancer (MBCT-Ca) has been adapted to meet the needs of people who have experienced cancer and its treatment.
ACT supports you to relate differently to problems and your life, with acceptance and willingness to be with what's here, and to choose to live life based on what matters to you.  Learning mindfulness is an important part of ACT therapy, learning to 'notice' your moment-to-moment experience non-judgementally, and stepping back from unhelpful thoughts and storylines.  ACT also involves getting familiar with your values, and identifying tangible steps to move towards these in your daily life.
​CBT helps people to understand and work with the connections between their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.  It is based on the principle that how we  interpret or make sense of a situation gives rise to certain thoughts and feelings, which then shape our actions.  It is a pragmatic and collaborative approach, working on specific goals that a person agrees with their therapist. Therapies including CFT, ACT and MBCT have developed from the earlier 'waves' of CBT, however these newer psychological therapies emphasise important concepts such as acceptance, mindfulness and the way we relate to our experience (rather than the content of thoughts).
EMDR supports recovery from distress caused by past traumatic experiences, by helping you to process the negative beliefs, images, emotions and body sensations associated with these memories.  It is a structured approach that incorporates talking therapy with side-to-side eye movements that help the brain to process memories.  It is recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults.