There are many approaches and methods to Psychotherapy and Counselling. I am trained in the methods listed below. Many things can be useful to address a challenge so multiple approaches can be used if needed. We can discuss what might work best for you in your first session.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a type of mindful psychotherapy that helps you stay focused on the present moment and accept thoughts and feelings without judgment. It aims to help you move forward through difficult emotions so you can put your energy into healing instead of dwelling on the negative. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Affirmative Therapy is a therapeutic approach that recognizes and affirms the experiences, identities, and rights of individuals within the LGBTQ+ community. It creates a safe and supportive environment where clients can explore their gender identity and sexual orientation without fear of judgment or invalidation. Gender identity and sexuality are not confined to binary categories but exist on broad spectrums. Each person's experience and understanding of their gender and sexuality are unique. Affirmative Therapy offers an opportunity to explore and embrace these aspects of your identity, free from societal expectations or pressures. It is a space where you can gain clarity, self-acceptance, and self-affirmation, leading to greater well-being and authenticity. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Attachment-based therapy is a brief, process-oriented form of counselling. The client-therapist relationship is based on developing or rebuilding trust and centers on expressing emotions. An attachment-based approach to therapy looks at the connection between a client's early attachment experiences with primary caregivers, usually with parents, the impact of the same on development and ultimately on forming healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult. Attachment-based therapy aims to build or rebuild a trusting and supportive relationship. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Choice Theory believes that all we do is behave, that almost all behaviour is chosen, and that we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun. In practice, the most important need is love and belonging, as closeness and connectedness with the people we care about is a requisite for satisfying all of our needs. Choice Theory allows one to take responsibility for one’s own life and at the same time, withdraw from attempting to direct other people’s decisions and lives. Individuals are empowered to take responsibility for their choices and support others in taking ownership of their choices. Negative behaviors reduce in frequency and intensity, relationships strengthen and satisfaction in life increases. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Evidence based practice involves three concepts. The first involves using the best available research to inform practice. The second is listening to the client to understand what is important to that individual. The third involves using expertise gained through training to guide the session. This approach embodies all of these concepts to work towards the best possible outcomes for a client. Ultimately this approach is an overall one that brings the most efficient and effective sessions for clients as opposed to being useful for a specific type of challenge.
Gestalt therapy's focus is to raise your immediate awareness of how you are, while giving you flexibility to experiment with different ways of responding.
Gestalt is based on the principle that everyone is a whole, made up of mind, body and soul, and draws on the philosophical idea that the whole is other than the sum of its parts. It emphasises that to fully understand people you have to look at their current situation as they experience it.
There’s no one way of conducting Gestalt therapy. All Gestalt therapists present a non-judgmental space and support the client to be more self-aware. Focusing on where a client feels certain emotions in the body, or on giving voice to physical sensations in the body to reveal more understanding of underlying emotional experiences. The therapy is interactive and feedback driven. The therapist involves themselves in the therapy and shares what the client might be evoking in them as a way of prompting dialogue.
A session might also involve experiments, such as using objects in the room or drawing. A common technique is using an empty chair and imagining there is a person, or part of yourself, that you're in conflict with sitting there. You explain your feelings to them, then move to the chair and respond from their viewpoint. This helps you explore conflicts within yourself, giving voice to both sides to allow all views their full expression, and can lead to resolution and self-awareness. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Inner child work is a way to address needs that haven't been met as children and heal attachment wounds that may have developed. This is based on the work of John Bradshaw, incorporating Eric Erikson's developmental theory. Inner child work involves creating a space where your subconscious is allowed to take the lead. This facilitates the act of going inside oneself, to explore one's true feelings and parts of oneself that may have been rejected or labeled by others. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
IFS conceives every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts lead by a core Self. This work was founded by Richard C. Schwartz and developed further by Jay Earley. IFS posits that the mind is naturally multiple and that is a good thing. Just like members of a family, inner parts are forced from their valuable states into extreme roles within us. Self is in everyone. IFS works by accessing and healing one's protective and wounded inner parts. IFS creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Mindfulness-based interventions are forms of treatment that use a mindfulness approach. In line with the standard mindfulness approach, MBIs focus on concepts such as acceptance, non-judgment, and objectivity of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations. A routine mindfulness-based intervention would include mindfulness meditation, bringing attention to any thought patterns that would typically disrupt daily functioning.
Neurodiverse Therapy understands the unique strengths, challenges, and experiences associated with neurodivergent identities. It is Neurodiversity affirming and recognises, and celebrates, the natural variation in how individuals process information, perceive the world, and experience life. It acknowledges that neurodivergent identities, such as ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, OCD, PTSD and others, are a part of the human experience.
Pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy is a framework for therapy based on two key principles:
This doesn’t mean that clients will always know what they want, or that what clients want is what they need, but that any views that clients have on how best to do therapy should be actively elicited, respected, and engaged with. Pluralism in counselling and psychotherapy can be both an attitude towards therapy and a specific practice.
Person Centered therapy operates on a humanistic belief that the client is inherently driven toward and has the capacity for growth and self-actualisation. It relies on this force for therapeutic change in a nonjudgmental environment supported by empathy and honest self exploration. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Psychoanalysis involves one talking about oneself, ones challenges, and whatever else prompted one to seek therapy. The aim is to speak freely without censoring oneself, and explore subconscious beliefs, emotions or desires. This is done through analysing dreams, reactions, defines mechanisms, relationship with one's therapist and other factors in the therapy room. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
Psychodynamic therapy (PDT) originates from the work of Sigmund Freud. It is a form of talking therapy that explores the connection between one's past experiences, often from childhood, and their current mindset. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
TA is based on the idea that one's behaviour and social relationships reflect an interchange between parental (critical and nurturing), adult (rational), and childlike (intuitive and dependent) aspects of personality established early in life. Social interactions are analysed to determine the ego state of the communicator (client) as a basis for understanding behaviour. In TA, the client is taught to alter the ego state as a way to solve emotional problems. This approach can be particularly helpful with:
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