Psychological therapies
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
There are two basic aims in ACT (said like the word act);
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Helping you to create a rich, full and meaningful life by helping you to connect with what is important to you and move you towards that;
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Teaching you a set of skills that will allow you to handle the painful thoughts, feelings, sensations that go with a rich, full and meaningful life so that they have less impact on your life and less influence over you.
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Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are interconnected. They can cause us to fall into negative cycles of thinking which then influences our behaviour and cause us to fall into depression, anxiety, anger, obsessive behaviours or other types of emotional distress. CBT works on helping us be able to identify our thoughts and address the ones which are less helpful to us. It also focuses on helping us address the behaviours we may have fallen into inadvertently due to the engative cycle.
Systemic therapy
Systemic therapy encompasses a number of different approaches, but its main premise is to look at how the systems (family, friendships, work etc) we are involved in, can be part of our difficulties. This is often the therapy used with families and couples, but it also can be very helpful with individuals to help them understand how their problems fit within the systems they are part of. It addresses how we are influenced by the systems we are part of and how we also play a part in these systems.
Children and Adolescents
ACT, CBT and Systemic therapies all have a strong evidence base with children and adolescents. They are adapted to be more child and adolescent friendly, so there is often less focus on direct one-to-one talking and more use of creative materials.
Dementia and Neuro-rehabilitation
I have worked for many years in older age and neurological services and have an interest in helping people understand the cognitive changes they may be experiencing and how these will be affecting their lives. Memory and attentional problems often cause people to feel very anxious and therefore can impact on their emotional well-being, which in turn makes their cognitive problems seem worse. I am able to offer neuro rehabilitation to help people develop strategies to help overcome some of these difficulties.