Seeking therapy

There are many reasons that you may seek therapy and these are as unique as you are. You may sometimes feel isolated and “different” and this may only add to your feelings of segregation.

I specialise in working eclectically, drawing from various therapeutic approaches to meet the needs of each client. Some enquirers came to me saying that conventional therapy had not worked for them in the past. It is my experience that when the therapy and methods are adapted to meet their needs, my clients have attained excellent results.

Is therapy for you?

“Have you lost interest in activities that used to bring you pleasure?”

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, then therapy may well be a great help to you, as it has been for others just like you.

Do you feel like you are stuck and it seems ‘impossible’ to find the motivation and means to move on?
Do you feel trapped or that something is ‘missing’ from your life?
Are you seeking direction and a sense of purpose?
Have you lost interest in activities that used to bring you pleasure?
Are you ‘outgrowing’ your friends and relationships?
Are you trying to figure out who you are and what your life means?
Do you feel trapped in your life?
Do you often feel worried, anxious or ‘stressed out’ throughout the day?
Are you escaping into addictions such as alcohol, drugs, sex and/or online activities that leave you feeling guilty, powerless, hopeless and empty?
Are you feeling lost, confused or simply exhausted by the routine of everyday life?

Consultations

These are examples but by no means limit the subjects I can and have worked with: Your particular issue could be very different from these conditions:

Depression
- Chronic (long term)
- Transitory (medium to long term)
Phobia
- Spiders
- Mice
- Flying
- Enclosed Spaces
- Birds
- Needles
- Choking
- Being buried alive
- Telephones
Panic disorders
- Specific (upcoming event)
- General or non specific
Life changes
- Redundancy
- Separation
- Relocation
- Post illness
- Sexual awakening
- Surviving sexual abuse
- Male survivors of male sexual abuse
More
- General anxiety
- Body dysmorphia disorder (unhappy about all or part of the body)
- Surviving physical abuse and assaults (Post traumatic)
- Loss (of someone or something important)
- Bereavement
- Obsessive compulsive disorders
- Addictive behaviours
- Smoking
- Weight Management

Sometimes you see lists like that in the consultations box, and if whatever you are facing is not there; you may then feel worse. Don't let this stop you. I have worked with many diverse and individually unique issues. Your first step to freeing yourself is to seek help; you are already half way there by looking here.

It demonstrates strength and courage to seek help when you feel that you need it. If unwell, you consult a doctor and, working together, you are much more likely to recover.

Thoughts, feelings or mental health is no different.

Frequently Asked Questions

Therapy can seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.

Below are answers to the most commonly asked questions. If you have a question which isn't clarified here please ask me directly.

Q: What is Psychotherapy?

At one level psychotherapy consists of two people sitting in a room having a meaningful conversation.

Psychotherapy can be effective in relieving depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, many personality disorders, and many other mental health problems. It can be used along with medications to help patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In certain cases psychotherapy and medications work well together. An antidepressant may lift a patient's mood, for example, allowing them to participate more fully in psychotherapy which will bring about more lasting change.

Q: How can I get the Most out of Psychotherapy?

All of what happens in therapy depends on you. You are engaging a therapist to help you change things in your life.

It is important to be completely honest with your therapist. He or she can't help you if you withhold important information.
Take some time after the session to review what was said and to think about how to act on it. A therapy session usually lasts about an hour, but you have many more hours in the week to contemplate what was covered.
Be sure to do any assignments that you were asked to do. Not all therapists assign tasks between sessions, but when they are assigned they are important to the process and your progress.
Pay attention to your emotions between sessions. Let your therapist know about any patterns that you notice, especially anything out of the ordinary. Write things down and take them to the session if you need to.

Psychotherapy is a partnership, which will only be effective with your active participation.

Q: What is Cognitive Therapy?

Cognitive therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on a person's beliefs and expectations. The client modifies their thinking in order to modify their emotions or change self-defeating behaviours.

Aaron Beck from the University of Pennsylvania is one of the founders of cognitive therapy. Albert Ellis was also a major contributor to the field. Ellis' approach consists of the following model:

Activating Event Something happens; for example, you discover that someone you know and like does not like you.
Belief or expectation often ‘irrational’ such as the belief ‘Everyone should like me.’
Challenge the Belief Ask yourself if it is reasonable.
Dispute the belief Replace it with a more reasonable version such as ‘I like for people to like me, but I realise that some people won't.’

By modifying extreme or irrational beliefs you can greatly reduce the emotional distress in your life. A cognitively-orientated therapist can assist in this process, since it's not always possible to see our own irrational beliefs.

Q: What types of psychotherapy are used to treat depression?

Many forms of psychotherapy, including some short-term (10-20 week) therapies, can help those who are depressed.

‘Talking’ therapies help patients gain insight into and resolve their problems through verbal exchange with the therapist, sometimes combined with "homework" assignments between sessions.
‘Behavioural’ therapists help patients learn how to obtain more satisfaction and rewards through their own actions and how to re-learn the behavioural patterns that contribute to or result from their depression.
Short Term Psychotherapy Two of the short-term psychotherapies that research has shown helpful for some forms of depression are interpersonal and cognitive/behavioural therapies.
Interpersonal therapists focus on the patient's disturbed personal relationships that cause and increase the depression.
Cognitive/behavioural therapists help patients change the negative styles of thinking and behaving often associated with depression. This cognitive behavioural approach is sometimes referred to as CBT.
Psychodynamic therapies, which are sometimes used to address depressed states, focus on resolving the client’s conflicted feelings. These therapies are often reserved until the depressive symptoms are significantly improved.

Q: What is Hypnosis?

Experts have argued about exactly what hypnosis is. Some say that it is nothing more than people playing along with the hypnotist and just doing what they are told.

This is known as the social compliance theory.

But other psychologists say that hypnosis entails the creation of a special state of consciousness called a trance.

A trance is not the same as sleep; in fact it is more closely compared to daydreaming. With practice we can learn to carry out very complex activities without having to give them our total attention. It is possible to drive a car safely and yet not remember a certain part of the journey, because you were thinking about something else. This type of forgetting is a naturally occurring amnesia. I know that there have been times when I have arrived at work and not been able to recall any part of the journey!

What happens when you are watching TV or a movie? When you watch it, you forget about the room around you; you forget about the carpets and the furniture and you suspend belief in the outside world whilst becoming more absorbed in the world shown on the screen.

If it is a really gripping programme or story, when something frightening happens you jump; when it is something sad you may cry; if it is something funny you laugh, even though it is not real; but still, for that moment you believe it.

These are all examples of everyday experiences of changes in consciousness that produce trances. And what a Clinical Hypnotherapist does is use their skills to trigger these naturally occurring changes of consciousness to make a special hypnotic trance or state in which it is easier to access the power of the unconscious mind. It is this part of the mind that can bring about those changes that you are aiming for. When done properly, the changes that you desire can and do occur without effort and remarkably quickly.

Hypnosis cannot perform miracles, but it is a state of awareness, which can be used for self-help. In the clinical setting, hypnosis is accompanied with a very pleasant state of physical relaxation, which in itself is very beneficial.